As a part of its commitment to fair and transparent government, the Queensland Government has consulted with building and construction industry stakeholders on its proposal to reverse changes made in 2014 to the levy that funds the portable long service leave (PLSL) entitlements of workers in Queensland’s building and construction industry.
In 2014, changes were made to the structure and rate of the levy collected by QLeave under the Building Construction Industry (Portable Long Service Leave) Act 1991 (the Act), including:
- the introduction of a tiered levy structure, which effectively discounted the levy rate for large projects;
- the exclusion of goods and services tax from the leviable building and construction costs; and
- a reduction in the PLSL levy rate from 0.3% to 0.25% of a project’s total costs.
The changes reduced the levy revenue that funds the PLSL scheme, and also impacted the revenue from two other levies QLeave collects under the Act - the work health and safety (WHS) levy and the building and construction training levy.
The Queensland Government consulted with industry on a related proposal, being further support for mental health and suicide prevention strategies in the building and construction industry. There is a particularly high incidence of suicide in the building and construction industry. The Government proposes to continue to support targeted industry mental health and suicide prevention strategies.
The Queensland Government has released a Decision Regulatory Impact Statement (PDF, 838KB).
The Decision Regulatory Impact Statement includes consideration of stakeholder feedback received during the consultation period following the release of the Consultation Regulatory Impact Statement (PDF, 469KB) in May 2019.
Following consideration of stakeholder submissions and other representations, the Government will pursue the following actions:
- return to a single PLSL levy arrangement (i.e. the removal of the tiered PLSL levy structure) to be applied to all building and construction projects in Queensland where the costs of works are $150,000 (excluding GST) or more
- make no change to the current exclusion of the GST as a component of the leviable cost of works;
- increase the PLSL levy rate by 0.1% from 0.25% of assessible project costs to 0.35%; and
- investigate alternative ways to fund initiatives that reduce the incidence of suicide and improve mental health outcomes for workers in the building and construction industry in Queensland.
Further information
Written submissions on the proposal and the Consultation Regulatory Impact Statement closed on 30 May 2019. The Office of Industrial Relations thanks all who made written submissions, or who met with OIR to provide their views.
Submissions, unless provided in confidence, are available.