History of the Act
The Building and Construction Industry Improvement Amendment (Transition to Fair Work) Act (Act) 2012 was first introduced in Bill form to Parliament in November 2011.
The 2011 Bill largely mirrored the 2009 Bill put before Parliament, which lapsed and was abandoned. The 2011 Bill was passed by both houses on 20 March 2012 and the Act received Royal Assent on April 15 2012.
John Kovacic, the DEEWR's Deputy Secretary of Workplace Relations has announced that the Act will take effect from Friday 1 June 2012.
What changes does the Act introduce?
The Act results in several key changes to the previous legislation including:
- abolishing the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner (ABC Commissioner) and replacing it with a new specialist agency – the Fair Work Building Industry Inspectorate (Inspectorate) – to regulate the building and construction industry
- enabling the Inspectorate to compulsorily obtain information or documents relevant to an investigation from certain persons
- providing extended safeguards relating to the Inspectorate's power to compulsorily obtain information or documents such as reducing the period before the sunset clause applies from five years to three years
- stopping the Inspectorate from prosecuting building workers when the parties have settled or discontinued matters
- removing the existing building industry specific penalties for unlawful industrial conduct and making them comparable to those under the Fair Work Act
- creating the Office of the Independent Assessor.
The Inspectorate
The Inspectorate will be lead by the current ABC Commissioner Leigh Johns, who has been announced as the acting Director for a 12 month period only.
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