Page 3013 - Week 09 - Thursday, 21 September 2006
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This bill introduces a number of minor amendments to the Building and Construction Industry Training Levy Act 1999. As indicated, Mr Speaker, in your presentation speech on 24 March 1999, the original intention of the act was to apply a levy on the cost of construction of all civil and private building and construction activity in the ACT in excess of $10,000.
Since the inception of the act, there have been individuals in the building sector who have contested their liability to pay the training levy. The Building and Construction Industry Training Fund Authority estimates that about $60,000 to $80,000 is forgone each year by its inability to pursue a small number of project owners who contest their liability to pay the training levy.
This bill introduces an amendment that will remove the ambiguity in relation to the definition of project owner. The definitional change to project owner will provide clarity as to who has responsibility for paying the levy; that is, if the work is done on land by or for the owner of the land they would be the project owner, or in any other case the project owner would be the person on whose behalf the work is done.
The ACT Planning and Land Authority is reviewing building approval requirements under the planning system reform project. These reforms will result in an increased range of exemptions from the need to obtain building approvals. In some cases this will result in a larger range of structures which can be built by do-it-yourself owners who will arguably not benefit from education provided by the training funds levy.
The act has been amended to align the definition of exempt works under the Building and Construction Industry Training Levy Act 1999 with the definition of exempt works under the Building Act 2004, sections 12, 14 and 15, and the Building Regulations 2005, regulations 5, 6 and 7.
The act currently requires the Construction Industry Training Council to appoint qualified valuers to assess the value of work where there has been a disagreement on the value by the authority and the project owner. However, the current practice with the assessment of the value of work is that the authority asks the project owners to assess the levy on the GST exclusive contract price of the work. If the authority and the project owner are not able to agree on the value, the authority and the project owner jointly appoint qualified valuers to assess the value of the work. The bill introduces an amendment to the act that reflects current practice.
The bill also provides for an amendment to the date on which the training plan needs to be approved each year. The 2007 training plan identifies five key areas and activities that will be funded in 2007. One of the key areas is entry-level training. The training fund in 2007 will provide for pre-employment training and job-ready skills as well as mentoring of apprentices by experienced workers and face-to-face induction training.
Amending the 30 June date to 30 October will enable better alignment with the timing of the annual territory negotiations with the commonwealth regarding vocational education and training funding and the determination of ACT government and local industry training priorities for the following year. It is in all our interests that building work on
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