The Housing Industry Association (HIA) has urged the federal government to refer a new workplace relations bill to a parliamentary committee for scrutiny, raising concerns that significant industry reforms were introduced without prior consultation.
HIA Senior Executive Director of Compliance and Workplace Relations Stuart Collins made the call after the Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026 was tabled in the House of Representatives, describing the move as part of a troubling pattern of substantial legislative change introduced without notice or industry engagement.
Collins characterised the bill as far more than the modest administrative update the government has presented it as, arguing it contains wide-ranging reforms with significant implications for residential construction, procurement frameworks and workforce costs.
He said policies that increase cost, uncertainty or administrative burden on residential builders move the government’s housing supply target further out of reach.
The bill was introduced by Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Amanda Rishworth, who said the legislation was designed to help the Fair Work Commission operate more efficiently in the face of increased applications driven by artificial intelligence and paid agents.
Under the bill, the Commission would be empowered to dispense with costly jurisdictional hearings before dealing with certain dismissal-related disputes, determine matters on the papers without proceeding to a formal hearing, and prevent applicants whose claims have been dismissed as frivolous or vexatious from filing further applications.
The bill would also allow supported bargaining to recommence without a new authorisation where one has already been made within the past two years.
Rishworth said the reforms would allow individual matters to be resolved more quickly and ensure the Commission can continue performing its core functions, including setting minimum wages, adjusting awards, approving enterprise agreements and resolving disputes.
The HIA, however, argues the bill’s practical effect goes well beyond efficiency measures. Collins said the legislation effectively fast-tracks the Commonwealth’s Secure Australian Jobs Code (which remains in consultation) and entrenches enterprise bargaining as the only workplace arrangement the government views as legitimate.
The association also raised concerns about proposed changes to the threshold requirements for unfair dismissal and general protections applications, warning that lowering the evidentiary bar would increase speculative claims and drive up compliance and legal costs for small businesses.
A further point of contention is the bill’s creation of a new high-income threshold specifically for road transport contractors, granting access to Fair Work protections in that industry alone.
Collins warned that if a similar carve-out were extended to construction, the impact on project costs and workforce management would be severe.
Rishworth acknowledged the road transport measure is intended to address a gap in protections for truck owner-operators whose out-of-pocket costs currently push them above the existing high-income threshold, and said industry would be consulted on the appropriate new threshold level.
The HIA is calling for the bill to be deferred until concurrent workplace relations reviews have been completed and government responses delivered.
Collins said the residential building sector, predominantly made up of small and medium-sized businesses, deserves meaningful consultation before reforms that increase cost or administrative burden are legislated.
The government’s housing supply target, the HIA argues, depends on policy settings that support builders rather than constrain them.
