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Last week we expressed our strong support for the deal to bring forward to this year the implementation of the Building Code for the construction sector. We billed the move as the Senate independents again demonstrating their common sense and willingness to listen to the ‘little people’.

Today we’ve lodged a submission to the Senate Inquiry into the Bill explaining why we support the deal.

Our submission is here. More...

Yesterday we congratulated the Senate independents for moving the implementation date forward for the Federal Construction Code to this year. This will be a big help to small business construction subbies.

Today we noticed some commentary in The Australian that big builders will have difficulties negotiating new compliant agreements with the building union, the CFMEU. We think that’s rubbish. We’ve seen before how quickly these agreements are changed when winning or losing business is on the line!!! More...

We were delighted to see in The Australian yesterday that the Senate independents are backing a deal to bring forward the implementation of the Australian Construction Code. This is a huge win for small business subbies in the construction sector. More...

Western Australia goes to the polls on 11 March. It’s looking like a cliffhanger.
 
One Nation is polling at 11 per cent and fielding candidates in 45 of the 59 Lower House seats and in all Upper House seats. Its polling numbers are double those of the Greens. There’s a strong prospect that after the election government will only be formed with the support of One Nation.  More...

A very big Season’s Greetings to all ICA members, supporters, friends and contributors—of which there are many! 2016 has been an impressive year in terms of achieving positive outcomes for self-employed people.  More...

Readers may have noticed the somewhat messy outcome with the Federal Government’s ABCC legislation last week. The key killer is that the associated federal construction code will not have application for two years. That means that big construction firms will have two years to continue to collude with unions to screw over small business construction subcontractors.  Here’s commentary from Judith Sloan in The Australian showing why it’s a mess.
 
But riding in from the West is a different player! More...

It’s been quite a week on the construction anti-corruption front:  More...

The Victorian government this week imposed the first sanction against a construction firm for breach of the Victorian Construction Code, banning it from tendering for a period of 3 months. The firm was dictating industrial relations arrangements to a subcontractor, forcing the subbie to use the union. Ken Phillips explains the issue here. More...

Ken Phillips wrote in Business Spectator about the huge threat to Victoria if the ALP wins the upcoming November election. Ken says that to elect Labor  “…the voters will have put the CFMEU in control of Victoria".  Labor supports the CFMEU’s aim to terminate the state's Construction Code even when CFMEU officials are facing Federal Court proceedings and court proceedings for alleged coercion. More...

The ugly truth about Australia’s industrial relations problems was on full display this week. The concrete supplier Boral has been ‘black banned’ by the construction union because they supplied concrete to the unions' hated enemy: Grocon. The CEO of Boral has made strong accusations alleging that competitors are in collusion with the union.  

ICA's CEO, Ken Phillips, wrote an open letter to Boral’s CEO, which was published in Business Spectator, expressing his agreement. Among other things, Ken said that where there is union thuggery “there is inevitably collusive coordination by the union with a competitor”. Ken's full blog post is here. More...