Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC)
A short factsheet on the QBCC: its establishing Act, licensing and rectification powers, and its genuine, actively-exercised power to prosecute unlicensed-contracting offences.
Learning outcomes
- State the QBCC's establishing Act and its licensing, rectification and home-warranty-insurance functions.
- Explain the QBCC's genuine, actively-exercised power to prosecute unlicensed-contracting offences, escalating from infringement notice to indictment.
- Apply the Court of Appeal's holding in McNab Constructions on the rectification-direction power against a construction manager.
Act: Queensland Building and Construction Commission Act 1991 (Qld).1
Established: Assented 17 December 1991 as the Queensland Building Services Authority Act 1991; substantive provisions commenced through 1992. The Authority was renamed the Queensland Building and Construction Commission effective around 1 December 2013 — well-corroborated by multiple secondary sources, though the exact amending instrument was not independently pinpointed for this factsheet.
Purpose: To regulate the building industry, maintain proper standards in its conduct and practices, provide remedies for defective building work, and support the resolution of building disputes. The QBCC administers a licensing regime for building contractors, work supervisors and specified high-risk occupations, and administers Queensland's statutory home-warranty insurance scheme.
Powers conferred under the Act
The QBCC licenses building contractors and supervisors, issues directions to rectify defective or incomplete building work, administers the home-warranty insurance scheme, and investigates complaints and disputes. In McNab Constructions Australia Pty Ltd v Queensland Building Services Authority [2010] QCA 380,2 the Court of Appeal confirmed the Commission's statutory power to issue a rectification direction against a construction manager who provided only supervisory services and was not involved in the work's design or execution.
Is it a prosecuting authority?
Yes — for offences under its own Act, a genuine exception to the general pattern that regulators investigate and refer offences onward. Under s 42, unlicensed contracting is an offence: a first offence may be dealt with by penalty infringement notice, a second offence is prosecuted summarily before the Magistrates Court, and a third or later offence is prosecuted on indictment before the District Court. The QBCC actively exercises this power — it reported issuing fines to hundreds of unlicensed-contracting offenders in the 2022-23 financial year. A student should not assume every Queensland regulator lacks prosecuting power just because most regulators do.
Self-check
- Have I stated plainly that the QBCC does prosecute unlicensed-contracting offences under its own Act, rather than defaulting to "regulators don't prosecute"?
- Have I cited McNab Constructions v QBSA [2010] QCA 380 for the rectification-direction power's reach to supervisory parties?
- Have I flagged the 2013 QBSA-to-QBCC rename date as well-corroborated rather than primary-source-pinpointed?