The Society of Construction Law Australia

Welcome

The Society of Construction Law (Australia) is a single national organisation of members, at all stages of their professional career, who share an interest in construction law.  The 16 founding members were drawn from all mainland states. Meet the current directors.

The Society encourages the active involvement of all of its members and discourse across the broad spectrum of issues relating to construction law, including matters of policy and legislation, "front end" issues, dispute avoidance, and all forms of dispute resolution.

To view the Society's Objects and Vision please click here. 

 

 

Latest News

Thursday 15 Apr 2021
Online webinar "FIDIC - Where the bloody hell are you?"

Thursday 15 April 2021 at 12:30 pm AEST.

Online webinar presented by Kiri Parr, Tony Barry and Rob Nelson-Williams

Australia is seeing an emerging discussion about the use and adoption of standard contracts in market. This debate flows from concerns about the complexity and value of the bespoke contracts that are widely used in the Australian market and the multiple initiatives of government agencies and authorities to remodel their relationship with the construction industry to improve long term outcomes.

This webinar will examine the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) Suite of Contracts, an internationally renowned and widely used suite of contracts but which is rarely seen in the Australian market.

 

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Wednesday 14 Apr 2021
ABCB Draft National Building Assurance Framework

Minimum information requirements could be applied to demonstrate the suitability of products for use on building projects whilst product technical statements could be mandated and a central information portal for building materials could be developed as part of reforms which have been proposed to prevent dangerous or unsuitable products being used in construction throughout Australia. 

The Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) has released a Draft National Building Assurance Framework, which sets out fourteen proposed actions across five areas to improve building product compliance and to address concerns relating to use of non-conforming or non-complying products on building projects.

More information is available here.

 

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Thursday 1 Apr 2021
Automatic Mutual Recognition legislation

The Automatic Mutual Recognition (AMR) legislation passed the House of Representatives on 25 March 2021 and the amendment to exclude construction trades was voted down along party lines.  Please see attached the full debate and how each MP voted 

Members may also be interested in this article on the AMR legislation published on 19 March 2021.
 
All states have signed up to implement  Automatic Mutual Recognition, except the ACT.

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Monday 22 Mar 2021
Why Mentoring Is More Important Than Ever in 2021

This short article written by Louise McManamon of the SoCLA Mentoring Program  highlights the importance of mentoring in 2021 and beyond. If you are a SoCLA member and would like to join our program this year, please apply here.  Applications close on 16 April 2021.

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Monday 22 Mar 2021
Useful resources from the ATO to assist you in preparation of your tax return

To assist when preparing your Tax Return, the ATO has published work-related expenses guides for many professions including: engineers and lawyers.

Information for those in the Mining, Building and Construction industries is available here.
 
For more information, or to download the guides available for other specific occupations, visit http://www.ato.gov.au/occupation21 

Information for those working from home is available here.

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Thursday 11 Mar 2021
World Building Congress

The World Building Congress is being held in Melbourne in 2022 from 27 to 30 June 2022. The call for abstracts is now open with the final date for submissions being 30 June 2021.  Members are encouraged to submit an abstract in any of the streams - further details can be found here.  

 

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Wednesday 3 Mar 2021
NSW Department of Education Jobtrainer - Construction initiative

Members may be interested in the NSW Department of Education Jobtrainer - Construction initiative.  More information is available here.

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Forthcoming events

Thursday 20 May 2021
Conflicts of Interest in International Arbitration

Presented by Adam Constable QC, Lucy Garrett QC, Samuel Townend QC, Robert Fenwick Elliott and Jennie Wild of Keating Chambers

In this session, Keating Chambers will cover:

  • An overview of the law in respect of fiduciary duties, Bolkiah test and expert duties.
  • Discussion of the UK court decision in A Company v Secretariat Consulting [2021] EWCA Civ 6. 
  • Australian position on conflicts of interest
  • Other Australian law considerations (comparative law re dirty/clean experts and expert shopping)

Practical considerations (scope of expert retainers, how to contract out of fiduciary duties, injunctions etc)

The Zoom link is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81300331777

More information is available on this flyer.

 

 

Location:
Online webinar

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Mentoring Program

Applications are now closed for the 2021 Mentoring Program. Further information about our mentoring program can be found here.

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