The Housing Industry Association (HIA) has called on the Federal Government to fix construction’s enforcement failure rather than add new standards and procurement conditions to an industry already governed by extensive laws and regulatory frameworks.

HIA has lodged submissions with the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations on the Potential Commonwealth Standards for the Construction Industry Discussion Paper, and on the proposed Secure Australian Jobs Framework (SAJF) and amendments to the Commonwealth Supplier Code of Conduct.

“The conduct the government reports that is driving these reforms, including coercion, bribery, intimidation and illegal phoenixing, is already unlawful,” HIA Managing Director Jocelyn Martin said.

“We are concerned the proposals duplicate existing laws, increase compliance costs, undermine procurement neutrality and risk negatively impacting housing supply objectives.

“The gap is not in the law. The gap is in enforcing it. New instruments with no enforcement power won’t change the behaviour of people deliberately breaking the law. However, they will bury compliant builders in paperwork and potentially create perverse disincentives and outcomes.

“If the Federal Government is serious about responding to the conduct and systemic issues identified in the NCIF tripartite endorsed Blueprint for the Future, it needs to re-establish an independent regulator. 

“The Federal Government’s experiment in abolishing the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) has failed. There is a clear case to reinstate a dedicated, adequately resourced construction regulator with powers over employer and union conduct alike to return the rule of law to construction sites. It should be supported by a specialist disputes panel that can convene quickly to resolve issues expediently.

“There is also no place for government-imposed standards that create a complex and unwieldy framework and provisions that restrict lawful workforce models while government should under no circumstances be preferencing union EBAs.

“The Government says the SAJF is not intended to apply to construction. The Framework's statement that construction is not intended to be covered appears only in the preamble and not within the operative provisions of the Supplier Code of Conduct,” Ms Martin said.

“An intention is not an explicit carve-out. If the Government means it, it should write it into the rules.

"Home builder impacts must be considered in the proposals. The industry participants the changes must reach and successfully secure buy-in from are overwhelmingly small and medium sized businesses, particularly so in the residential industry where more than 98 per cent of construction businesses have fewer than 20 employees.

“Residential builders are not the source of the conduct under examination. Yet they would carry the heaviest proportional burden of every new obligation under these proposed frameworks,” Ms Martin said.

HIA continues to engage constructively through the NCIF to deliver the Blueprint for the Future’s recommendations in good faith with government and unions.

“The Blueprint’s key objectives correspond directly to the eight principles in HIA's Values Statement for the Residential Building Industry, which together provides a practical and balanced roadmap to address poor workplace culture, strengthen compliance and lift standards across the sector,” Ms Martin said.

“Our commitment is to turn those principles into practical, effective action that focuses on promoting increased housing supply, workforce flexibility and small business participation.”

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