QBCC Now Obsolete, Builders Take Over

Before awarding contracts, some builders such as Hutchinson, Mirvac and Multiplex are now asking subbies for their;  

1 Latest financials,

2 Six months history of payments to staff re super, wages, penalties,

3 ATO portal history,

4 Six months of Workcover payments,

Does anyone see the irony in this?

The unfairness and injustice of this is truly sickening when you consider how many very large builders have liquidated owing subbies millions of dollars.

We keep hearing about poor Hutchies, bleating non stop in the media about their profitless boom, wafer thin profit, oh, and lets not forget 400 million in the bank, who have now found another way to deeply piss off their loyal subbies. How long is 400 million going to last for a company who turns over 2 billion and makes almost zero profit?

If they have worked with a group of subbies for years, surely that history is worth something but not to these narcissistic companies.

They have it completely arse about face

The above information is exactly what builders should be providing to subcontractors and suppliers when they ask for what amounts on some projects to be hundreds of thousands of dollars in unsecured credit every month.

I am not saying Hutchies don't pay because they do but this is a disgrace and amounts to big builder bullying tactics and after a few years of almost no profit, what guarantees do subbies have?

Its not the other way around, builders are not providing subbies with credit with no guarantee of payment. All subbies get are increasingly hard to decipher, extremely large and complicated contracts that provide no guarantee of payment.

That information they ask for is private, true subcontractors are not public companies, they are often family businesses, and their information in the hands of some builders could be used for many things that are not in the best interests of subbies such as to screw down subbies who actually show a reasonable profit. I can hear it now, "you're making too much money, I want you to drop your price 10%".

And conversely, those not making enough don't get a look in because when builders don't pay on time or don't pay at all, they may have to use the ATO as their overdraft from time to time. I have no problem with that, the way Governments waste our money is a disgrace.

Hutchies are on record as saying they are building their own teams of subcontractors so why would genuine subbie want to work for them? Especially with them wanting your private financial information and them operating on little or no profit?

What are you Hutchies?

What are you Hutchies, builders or subbies? Make up your mind but you can't be both and expect the support of subcontractors.

This financial information could be used to help them decide if a certain industry is profitable and worth starting their own subcontract business in opposition to those subbies who have loyally supported them for many years. Don't join them subbies, there is no guarantee you will be paid just because they are big and have been around for 100 years. Big is not necessarily better.

Some builders gather this very private information through a 3rd party who "cannot" share it and whose only job it is to veto "sign off" on the subbie but others don't. Either way, its an invasion of privacy and not good enough.

Big Builders Take Over QBBC

The gathering of financial information to meet the QBCC's Minimum Financial Requirements is the job of the QBCC.

Builders asking for subbies financial information is a complete about face and overreach, bypassing the QBCC and rendering this woke Government entity obsolete.

Get rid of them, they are a costly embarrassment run by a board who know nothing about the construction industry and epitomise Labors typically big public service with too many people sitting on their backsides doing nothing constructive.

Its illegal under the QBCC Act for the QBCC to share financial or any information on licensee's so why is it ok for builders to ask for the same information?

Its an outrage that these narcissistic builders have turned this around to suit themselves when its the builders who are the borrowers of huge amounts of unsecured credit from subbies and should be providing their financial information to those providing the credit.

Like banks require from borrowers, like almost any other lender requires.

If this is the price of doing business in the construction industry, the time will come in the near future where subbies will refuse to contract to these builders under these draconian conditions where subbies are treated like serfs.

Tell them NO!

Then lets see if they can find others willing to bare their soul that could potentially be seen by dozens if not hundreds of people in builders offices and be leaked or become common knowledge in the industry.

What security is around this very private information?

I believe contract administrators handle this information, they change jobs about as often as the average bloke changes his underpants. There will be no privacy and no security.

Its one of the worst ideas I have seen in a lifetime in the industry.

Its reminiscent of just how badly the Australian and State Governments behaved during Covid. It was a balls up of mammoth proportions with the likes of the Qld, Victoria and WA Premiers on a power trip in the guise of keeping us all "safe".

Who can forget rubber bullets, pregnant women in their pyjamas arrested, girls thrown to the ground by big cops, borders locked, Qld and Vic citizens living outside the border in their cars, verification stickers to actually cross your own border, curfews, old ladies sitting on a park bench with big lumbering cops sneaking up behind then snatching her phone out of her hands, citizens treated like we lived in Russia while gutless cops took a knee to BLM who were allowed to freely march in the streets instead of the fat lazy bastards arresting them like they did to the rest of us.

I was disgusted then and still am, I will never forgive our Governments and now builders are doing similar things by their demands and standing over subcontractors.

Builders saw our governments do this type of thing so some industry arse-clown decided to do it to subbies and builders decided to embrace it as a fair and righteous thing to do.

This has the putrid stench of the MBA all over it.

The industry is full of rumours, what if employee's of a subcontractors company gained access to their bosses information and decided to leave and start in opposition. It wouldn't be the first time and could destroy their business.

Governments cannot be trusted with peoples private information yet these builders seem to think they can be.

Tell these builders to fuck off, they need you more than you need them, they hold the head contract and have contractual penalties.

How long can a building company who makes a miniscule profit on a massive turnover last? If history tells us anything, the answer is not long!

Its fast getting to the stage where subbies won't work for these big builders.

They are too demanding, too inflexible, their sites are poorly run and lack organisation with a mess of subbies getting in each others way and now with this latest imposition, they are becoming too exhausting to do business with.

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, if you are NOT a subcontractor, DO NOT JOIN, you will not have access until we approve you and in the approval process, we will weed you out, you are not welcome.

Note: More membership applications are rejected than those that are accepted so stop wasting our time. SubbiesUnited is for subcontractors only!