Minister for Jobs and Industrial Relations, the Hon Kelly O’Dwyer MP, has announced that the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) will receive $3.7 million in additional funding and resources over four years from 2019-20 to boost its ability to enforce laws on building and construction sites. In announcing the plan this morning, Minister O’Dwyer said that since the ABCC was re-established, it has received over 470 complaints and carried out 355 investigations. The construction industry is Australia’s second largest contributor to GDP and provides jobs for almost one in 10 Australian workers, with many of these jobs found in the small businesses that make up 99 per cent of the industry. The Minister said most of these small businesses are at the bottom of the contracting supply chain, making them particularly vulnerable to unions and large construction com... more

A new report released by Infrastructure Australia today has warned that essential infrastructure and services such as public transport, roads, hospitals and schools are failing to keep pace with the delivery of new housing in growth areas of our largest cities. The newest release in Infrastructure Australia’s Reform Series, Planning Liveable Cities, recommends substantial planning, funding and governance reforms to ensure Australia’s governments are appropriately coordinating the delivery of new housing in growing cities with the additional infrastructure and services needed to support it. In commenting on the findings of the report, Infrastructure Australia’s Executive Director of Policy and Research, Peter Colacino said that Australia’s largest cities are growing and changing at a rate not seen for more than 50 years. “This brings economic, social and cultural oppo... more

From timber towers to high-tech distribution centres, Australia’s best projects and top talent have been nominated for Australia’s most prestigious property awards program: The Property Council of Australia/Rider Levett Bucknall’s Innovation and Excellence Awards. Each year the Innovation and Excellence Awards aim to showcase innovating projects, pioneering solutions and inspiring leadership in Australia’s property industry. As of today, 153 finalists in different 20 categories have been named ahead of next year’s edition of the program, before the event takes place in May. The Property Council’s Chief Executive, Ken Morrison said that property is Australia’s largest industry and these awards honour the projects shaping our skylines, our cities and our communities. “As Australia’s cities and communities continue to grow, these projects showcase the contribu... more

New combustible cladding laws have come into effect in Queensland, imposing new obligations on property owners and bodies corporate. As a response to devastating fires which occurred at the Grenfell Building in London and THE Lacrosse Building in Melbourne’s Docklands area, on 1 October 2018, the Queensland Government introduced new legislation for buildings with combustible cladding. According to Hickey Lawyers partner, Joe Welch, while the new legislation does not force anyone to remove their cladding or change their building, there are several potential impacts and legal ramifications. “The legislation requires building owners and bodies corporate of privately-owned, multi-storey buildings built or modified after 1 January 1994 to report it to the Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC) via the Safer Buildings combustible cladding checklist,” Mr Welch sa... more

The member associations of the Australian Construction Industry Forum (ACIF) will meet with a number of Federal Ministers and Shadow Ministers in Canberra next week, to speak directly about the industry’s biggest issues. First and foremost, ACIF members would like a commitment by state and federal governments to implement the recommendations of the Shergold-Weir Report within three years of its release. That is, by May 2021. For context, Professor Peter Shergold and Ms Bronwyn Weir’s independent report provides the Building Ministers’ Forum (BMF), who oversee policy and regulatory issues affecting Australia's building and construction industries, with a comprehensive package of recommendations, designed to establish a national best practise model for compliance and implementation. The Shergold-Weir Report contains 24 recommendations to address the key weaknesses of the ex... more

The Queensland Government has announced plans to introduce new laws to protect Queenslanders working in the building and construction industry from the devastating impact of company collapses. Minister for Housing and Public Works Mick de Brenni said the new financial reporting laws, which will come into effect from 1 January 2019, are a key element of the Government’s landmark security of payment measures. “At the last election, I promised to right the wrongs of the past and strengthen laws that will help ensure Queensland’s small businesses are paid in full, on time, every time,” Mr de Brenni said. He said making sure subcontractors and suppliers are paid for the work they perform means industry can stop wasting time chasing late or unpaid invoices and can instead focus on growing their businesses and creating jobs. Presently, over 230,000 Queenslanders are employed... more

Research has found that across the world buildings are responsible for 19 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions and our cities are responsible for up to 70 per cent. Hence, designing buildings that produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions is essential to help limit global warming and the threats it poses, but buildings also need to be designed and constructed to cope with the changing climate conditions. The urgency of rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions was highlighted in the bleak prognosis from the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report. Released earlier in the year, the report states that limiting global warming to 1.5C requires ‘far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society’. This includes changes in the way cities currently function, including land use, energy, industry, buildings, and transport. Two researchers fro... more