Enter your email and password to access secured content, members only resources and discount prices.
Did you become a member online? If not, you will need to activate your account to login.
If you are having problems logging in, please call HIA helpdesk on 1300 650 620 during business hours.
If you are having problems logging in, please call HIA helpdesk on 1300 650 620 during business hours.
Enables quick and easy registration for future events or learning and grants access to expert advice and valuable resources.
Enter your details below and create a login
Ms Martin’s call comes as the Government and Industry representatives meet in Canberra this week to discuss a broad range of changes to areas in the IR space.
“Independent contracting arrangements are a long-standing feature of the residential building industry. The industry relies on these work arrangements as a way of productively managing the needs of building businesses, especially smaller businesses,” said Ms Martin.
“HIA estimates that over 80 per cent of the work completed in the sector is performed by independent contractors.
“For residential builders, it provides a flexible, workable and efficient model for engaging workers and managing the peaks and troughs of the home building cycle. Builders rely on access to good and reliable trade contractors to maintain competitiveness.
“Australians rely on independent contractors to build the houses that feed the desperate demand for affordable housing.
“Federal and state governments have long held different views on what constitutes an independent contractor creating challenges for the industry and threaten the ability for a trades person to remain their own boss. However, any moves that would force a legitimate independent contractor to be classified as an employee would be a backward step.
“HIA is well equipped to help all sides of politics come to a sensible definition for independent contracting, that will not impede the right for trades people to work independently.
“HIA suggests there needs to be a single national objective test, based on the ATO’s approach, to distinguish employees from independent contractors.”
To distinguish independent contractors from employees the ATO considers whether a person works to produce a result, provides plant and equipment or tools of the trade and whether they are liable to rectify defective work.
The advantage of this approach is that instead of defining an ’employee’, the rules merely identify who is an independent contractor.
“The task of governments should be to preserve and enhance genuine independent contracting businesses, not force small business to become employees.
“Restricting the use of independent contracting in the residential building industry will only serve to undermine the contribution of the sector to overall economic growth and exacerbate the challenge of making housing more affordable,” concluded Ms Martin.
“Home building materials have continued to experience only modest cost increases, up by 1.6 per cent in the 2024/25 financial year,” stated HIA Senior Economist, Maurice Tapang.
“Today’s interim report from the Productivity Commission overwhelmingly backs what HIA has long been saying - that the regulatory burden on businesses is getting worse in this country and there is need for a major overhaul on the approach to regulation,” said HIA Managing Director, Jocelyn Martin.
“The Housing Industry Association (HIA) welcomes the release of the Queensland Productivity Commission’s interim report into construction productivity It is a significant and necessary step toward overcoming the housing supply challenges facing Queensland,” said Michael Roberts, HIA Executive Director Queensland.
“New home building approvals in the 2024/25 financial year were up by 13.9 per cent compared to their 2023/24 trough,” stated HIA Senior Economist Tom Devitt.