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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.

We say that

• the Building Code is a cornerstone to the protection of small business subcontractors in the construction sector.
• it suppresses or prevents big construction firms from colluding with construction unions to push efficiency- and profit-killing industrial relations arrangements onto small construction subcontractors, particularly independent contractors
• The Building Code will do much to increase competition in the construction sector and thus do much to enable small subcontractors and independent contractors to more effectively operate and compete in the sector. 

We label complaints by construction unions about the deal as:

• at best nonsensical fabrications and at worst deceptive lies.

We say this because the CFMEU has entered agreements undertaking to terminate the agreements if they breach the Building Code and to enter new Code-compliant agreements.

In fact it could be said that, in effect, the CFMEU has conceded the legitimacy of the Building Code.

We've urged the speedy passage of the Building and Construction Industry (Improving Productivity) Amendment Bill 2017.