
On 31 January 2025, the Queensland Government made a Proclamation under the Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017 which pauses the planned rollout of future stages of the Project Trust Account framework.
Prior to this, Phase 3 of the framework was expected to commence on 1 March 2025. This phase was set to apply to eligible private sector, local government, statutory authority and government-owned corporations’ contracts to $3 million or more, as opposed to the current threshold of $10 million.
Phase 4 was expected to commence on 1 October 2025 and would have captured all eligible contracts valued at $1 million.
As part of the pause the Government cited a range of risk factors including:
- difficult financial conditions within the industry, with further challenges including acute profit margins, rising costs, labour shortages, availability of materials, restricted cash flow and compliance costs;
- continuing risk of insolvency in the construction sector;
- availability of software to support trustees in complying with their strict obligations under the regime; and
- the need to improve visibility and understanding of the regime and its requirements, due to Phases 3 and 4 being more likely to impact smaller contractors.
For further information, please click here.