Ph D candidate, University of Adelaide, Adelaide School of Natural & Built Environments, University of South Australia, Adelaide

School of Architecture, Design and Environment, University of Plymouth, UK

Several Commonwealth jurisdictions have introduced construction industry payment legislation over the past 13 years. Whilst all the legislation has the common objective of improving cash flow within the construction industry and shares key conceptual provisions, there are many differences between the various Acts. In Australia, due to the enactment of eight separate and differing Acts, the issue of national harmonisation has become topical. By carrying out a comprehensive comparative review of the key differences between the legislation internationally and considering the performance of the Australian legislation to date, this paper attempts to enhance a legislative model for Australian harmonisation which was first proposed by one of the authors earlier in 2011.

Over the past 13 years, building and construction industry payment legislation has been enacted in several Commonwealth jurisdictions. A list of the relevant Acts is presented in Table 1.