Hudson Brett: Construction Contracts Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHudson Brett: Construction Contracts Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 12 March 2015. Volume:703;Page:2247. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]BRETT HUDSON (National): I will retain my comments on retention payments to Part 2 as you request Mr Chair. I will just draw attention of course to why we are here to debate this bill.The amendments we are making are in fact all about providing a productive efficient and accountable construction sector. But as the Minister has said I think that one of the key changes we are making in Part 1 in fact is ensuring that residential construction activities and projects will receive full and equal access to the processes under the Act. So in fact we are just making an amendment to have a definition of construction activities and not a separation or distinction between what might be commercial and what might be residential.In fact I think we can take it as read that by making them the same they do get full and equal treatment but I would be happy to have the Minister—if he feels it might be appropriate—perhaps just give us some illustration as to the risks that might exist today under the existing provisions where the treatments are different for different forms of construction. That elucidation might help give members across the Chamber some greater confidence as to what this specific provision change will achieve in reality for people who are undertaking work.It also of course does widen the scope to include those activities and services in construction that are provided by architects by engineers and also by quantity surveyors. So it makes sure that those rather important design and construction activities are also caught within the scope of the provisions of the bill.But the part that I would like to talk about and focus on in Part 1 as it is obviously very key is the amendment to section 9 of the Act in clause 7 which is in fact when these provisions will take effect. Supplementary Order Paper 52 which the Minister has put forward sets a commencement date or if you will a time of validity of 31 March 2016. That will give the industry a full year to adjust to all of the changes that this bill will introduce including the ones that we are not going to talk about right now that will in fact require change within the industry—they are around retentions but we will not cover the retentions themselves. But the start date is very relevant for that because it makes sure that those parties have sufficient time to prepare themselves their systems and their processes to be able to conduct business in accordance with the new provisions.I would note that the Supplementary Order Paper is changing the start date by over 6 months in effect. I think that is taking on board feedback from the industry and others that were we to rush into this too quickly then we would have a whole suite of obligations but really just not give the people who are obliged to comply with them sufficient time to get everything they might need in place to ensure that the consumers or the purchasers—the ones whom we are really looking to provide protection to—could have sufficient confidence that the new provisions were in place and were being administered fully. So it is good to see that we have extended it out a bit as I have said to ensure that the industry has sufficient time to get all of its processes in place.I do look forward to the next part of this bill when we will get into some meat of both the Supplementary Order Papers and a discussion—which I think we are all looking forward to—on retention payments but that is not to diminish the importance of Part 1 particularly as I have said the start date for when the provisions of the amendment will come into force. Thank you.