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Project trust account pause

  • February 07, 2025
  • by Property Australia
Further rollout of Queensland’s Project trust Account framework has been paused

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.

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