More MBA – ARITA Bile At The Expense Of Subbies

21-03-2022 11.32am

Read this and then tell me why any subcontractor would support or be a member of the industry thugs, the MBA.

We were ready for PBA's two years ago and if it had happened then, Subbies would be far better off financially today.

Surely no one in Government is going to entertain this MBA self serving stupidity.

In the past few months, subcontractors and Suppliers have suffered overwhelming losses from the liquidations of 4 of Queensland and Australia's largest builders;

1. Privium
2. Probuild
3. Condev

Also BA Murphy among others.

The financial damage has not yet been fully quantified for the big 3 but preliminary losses have it over 1 billion Australia wide for Probuild alone.

There are at least 8 more including 2 Category 7 builders where there is talk churning around them. Subbies live in fear on how they survive the crisis of large losses, Covid delays, the lack of qualified tradesmen, material price blowouts and poor site management.

There are also the unsustainable losses builders have been forced to absorb because they use MBA contracts that don't have rise and fall clauses in them.

Further to that, onsite mistakes on a large scale, water damage from recent torrential rain, floods, union influence on large jobs, mismanagement and lack of experience from many site supervisors that make Subbies financial situation more vulnerable than ever.

Current State of the Industry

Given the current state of the industry, if there is a delay of another 12 months in the roll out of project trust accounts to the private sector, there will be carnage on a scale never before seen.  

Subbies have lost confidence that trusts will ever be introduced. They think they are being led down the garden path by the MBA puppets in the Labor Government. When Labor wanted re-election, they promised the world to Subbies but delivered an Atlas.

The reasons given for proposed further delays by the MBA are simply bullshit. Builders have had since 2018 to prepare themselves for trust accounts.

Then there is MBA's Comical Excuse of Affordability For Builders.

If these builders cannot afford the accounting software, then they shouldn’t have a licence to operate in the $1m to $10m category.  It's this category where the most regular offenders come from. 

This is an ongoing MBA campaign to have project trusts abolished in the private sector where they are needed most.

Subbies listen up, the name "Master Builders Association" says it all. They are not named Master Subcontractors Association for a reason and that reason is their focus is on builders. They are attempting to ensure that builders can liquidate your money away with impunity like they have always done.

You would not lose your retentions and on top of that, be sued for preferences. Despite what the CEO of ARITA says, subbies have never seen a cent of the reclaimed preferences.

Mr Winter again you miss the point, please provide us with examples where trade contractors have been repaid monies upon the conclusion of a winding up after preferential payments have been recovered. The space under this line is reserved for your answer.

Other than the possibility of going back and working on a Probuild project for another builder, how does the sale help get Subbies unpaid claims and retentions back? In most instances, they are lost forever.

We now have sufficient data to show that Liquidators and their Lawyers are the most inefficient machines on the planet in that they consume as much as they produce and "more". The "more" is the grants from the QBCC and FEG to pursue directors and preferences.

It's been a feast for them for far too long, hence ARITA's CEO grasping at straws yet again in an attempt to keep the teddy bears picnic going and to belittle SubbiesUnited and subbies in general with his obvious superiority.

Any subbie who supports the enemy is a mug and rest assured, MBA is Subbies enemy no 1. MBA couldn't give a shit about you and this latest Subbie hating gibberish proves it.

Project Bank Accounts (PBA) should have been implemented already. If the Government had stuck to the schedule instead of listening to these clowns, you would not be losing your retentions and millions of dollars in unpaid claims when builders liquidate.

They look after their own and their own is NOT subcontractors.

Mr De Brenni Keep Your Word to the Industry

Please ignore this narcissistic lobbying and ramblings from MBA. If Project Trust Accounts had been implemented when you first said you would, subbies would be millions of dollars better off and financially strong enough to survive the current disasters of Privium, Probuild and Condev and fight another day but many won't.

The most recent one is Condev and no matter what their developers say, Subbies will be millions out of pocket and it could have been avoided.

The one thing that set Condev apart is that the directors stayed and faced the media and while that is a first in the industry, it doesn't help Subbies pay their staff but if their money was in Project Trust Accounts their funds would come back to them.

Subbies, desert the MBA ship, they don't care about you, they care about builders as the name of their organisation suggests.

MBA if you want to do something useful for the industry, have your bevy of Lawyers write a contract that actually helps builders with mandatory rise and fall clauses that cater for extraordinary times like these so that builders can actually make a dollar.

Subbies do not renew your MBA membership, why support an organisation that is doing its utmost to grind you into financial ruin?

Instead, join us here at SubbiesUnited, an organisation that actually cares about Subcontractors and who represents you at every opportunity.

Subbies add a level of protection to your business and join SubbiesUnited and make use of our private members forum for up to date information but a warning, do not join if you are NOT a subcontractor, we will weed you out before you get a foot in the door. If you're not a subbie or a trusted supplier, you are not welcome.