On 26 October 2017 the Queensland Parliament passed the Building
Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017 (Qld)
("Amendment Act"). It will commence on a
date set by proclamation (which has not yet occurred).
In addition to various amendments to Queensland's security
of payment legislation, the Amendment Act amends the Building and
Construction Industry Payments Act 2004 (Qld)
("BCIPA") to introduce project bank
accounts ("PBAs").
The Queensland Government has indicated that PBAs will be
required from 1 January 2018 for projects where the principal is
the State of Queensland (or a State authority which elects to opt
in), so long as at least 50% of the contract price relates to the
performance of building work1 and the contract price is
more than $1 million but less than $10 million. The Government has
indicated that PBAs will be rolled out more widely (i.e. for all
building contracts with a contract price of more than $1 million)
from 1 January 2019.
