New Building and Construction Code

Construction industry is at the crossroads.
The Federal Government announced earlier this year that contractors who want to be eligible to tender for projects fully or partially funded by the Federal Government must comply with the provisions of the new Building and Construction Code effective from 24 April 2014 even though the legislation to enable the new Code has yet to be passed by the Parliament.
Building unions are now applying pressure to contractors and subcontractors to sign union pattern EBAs knowing full well that such EBAs will not comply with the Code. The Federal Department of Employment has examined the EBAs proposed by the unions and determined that they are unproductive and would not comply with the Code.
It is felt that the industry should not sign these union EBAs because it would pose a grave risk to the livelihoods of our members who would not be eligible to work on Federal Government funded projects.
The Federal Government through the Minister Employment Eric Abetz has publicly stated that the Government is confident that the legislation enabling the Code will be passed by the Senate before the end of the Parliamentary year which concludes in early December 2014.