STEPP i NG UP THE F i GHT F o R MEMBERS

When we became aware that the Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC) had provided details to the media of over 500 licensees who had allegedly failed to provide annual reporting and had a condition of ‘no new work’ placed on their building licence, our advocacy team sprang into action.

During our investigations into what we believe is a fundamental error by the regulator, we uncovered a number of members who had been caught up unnecessarily. Contrary to what was reported, these members did not have an active condition placed on their licence at the time of publication – which was verified at the time by the QBCC’s licensing register. Some of these members should never have had a condition placed on their licence in the first place.

It appears this occurred due to automated processes being used when imposing licence conditions, rather than allowing for human decision making, which we see as essential for such a significant matter. Preventing licensees from quoting for work or entering into contracts and then publishing their names in the newspaper is not a decision to be taken lightly.

In the short term, we called on the QBCC to remove the licence conditions from the record entirely, publicly retract the statements made in the media, apologise to impacted licensees, review its procedures to ensure a bungle like this never happens again, and implement due diligence checks before embarking on public naming and shaming exercises in future.

While the media report was amended by the

PAUL B id WELL CEO

publisher to remove the list of licensees and minimise reputational damage to those listed erroneously, the QBCC did not remove the licence conditions from the record for the vast majority of those impacted or retract statements made.

This situation also highlighted that the QBCC may be improperly imposing conditions on licences by relying on an incorrect head of power in the QBCC Act In layman’s terms, this essentially means we don’t believe it is appropriate for the QBCC to impose a condition of ‘no new work’ based on an assumption of guilt that hasn’t been proven by an investigation or process provided for in the legislation. We also believe it’s questionable whether failure to lodge annual reporting by the due date is a sufficient reason for the QBCC to reasonably believe a licensee has insufficient financial resources - particularly in the case of small businesses who don’t always have the resources available to them. These are essentially an ‘administrative deeming of guilt’ for an offence based on a licensee’s failure to respond to a notice, rather than actual proof of the offence. It’s complex, and there’s plenty of legal speak, but the upshot is that licensees are at a disadvantage that could have incredibly negative ramifications on their business.

We’ve urged the QBCC to review its procedures and use the legislative processes available to them that involve procedural fairness to impose such conditions, rather than taking a ‘guilty unless proven innocent’ approach, which can have a drastic and unnecessary impact on a contractor’s business. 

Read our full submission to the QBCC on our website at mbqld.com.au/our-advocacy