The Queensland Minister for Housing and Public Works has announced reforms to cut red tape for builders. This includes an indefinite pause on the rollout of retention trust accounts as well as project trust accounts.
While MEA understands the complexities with the Queensland trust account framework, we are disappointed to see the pause on retention protections. Currently, a retention trust account and a project trust account is required for private sector building projects over $10m in value and government projects over $1m. The security of payment measures were due to extend to private sector projects over $3m from 1 March and over $1m (with cascading retention trust accounts) from 1 October 2025. These extensions have been placed on an indefinite hold.
Other measures announced by Minister O’Connor include removing the annual financial reporting requirement for smaller builders, introduction of a Housing Code, review of QBCC processes and clarity on implementation timeframes for the National Construction Code.
Master Electricians Australia CEO Kate Raymond has met with Minister O’Connor and advocated strongly for better retention money protections, including having protections apply to lower value and residential projects. We are also advocating for better payment protections generally, including a federal fund akin to the existing worker fund, to apply to subcontractors who are unpaid following builder insolvency.
We are coordinating an industry survey on your experiences with non-payment so if you haven’t already please complete our survey, to help us with our advocacy.
