Industry Welcomes Axing of Qld’s Contentious BPIC
A Queensland policy criticised by some as making the procurement process in the state unfair and unreasonable has been scrapped permanently.
The Queensland Government has now axed Best Practice Industry Conditions (BPIC) in a move it says will cut red tape and improve productivity.
The BPIC was paused in November 2024 by the Crisafulli Government a month after it took office.
The BPIC recommended standards for wages, conditions and industrial relations on major projects, and applied to government construction projects costing more than $100 million.
It imposed conditions on employment terms, requiring the pre-qualification of contractors and subcontractors. That limited the pool of available contractors, critics argued.
The BPIC was labelled by some as a “CFMEU tax”—the Government estimated that the BPIC had the potential to increase project costs by up to 25 per cent and create a net economic cost of up to $17.1 billion.
While existing enterprise agreements already have the BPIC standards included, future deals, including those relating to the Olympics, will be exempt.
The announcement was part of a suite of policy changes introduced this week under the Queensland Procurement Policy 2026, which prioritised the participation of small and medium Queensland businesses.
The policy has a 30 per cent small and medium enterprise participation target, with a focus on businesses that are owned or supported by veterans, female-led businesses and those that support people with disability.
The changes also aim to support Indigenous business growth with at least 3 per cent annual procurement spend.
The policy changes follow the interim report of the newly re-established Queensland Productivity Commission, which investigated conditions in residential and non-residential construction, examining policy and regulatory factors affecting industry productivity.
The report found that leaving BPICs in place until 2029-30 would cost an extra $20.6 billion and as many as 26,500 fewer homes built.
The new procurement policy cuts the process down from a 700-page document—of which 269 pages were the BPIC agreement—to 50 pages, according to the Queensland Government.
The changes have largely been welcomed by the industry.
Australian Constructors Association chief executive Jon Davies said the simplified format and focus on value showed that the Government was “serious about improving how public funds are invested”.
“For too long, procurement has been a race to the bottom. By focusing on genuine value, we can turn that into a race to the top,” Davies said.
Master Builders Queensland chief executive Paul Bidwell welcomed the focus on small and regional business, as well as the BPIC cut.
Bidwell said that the latter was a “hangover” from the former state government.
“While the Victorian Government seemed oblivious to the CFMEU having control over the contractors involved in their building projects, the same can’t be said in Queensland,” he said.
“For six years the former state government unashamedly endorsed contractors having to adopt BPIC on its projects over $100 million.”
Bidwell said that $2 billion over two years had been earmarked in the previous government’s 2024 budget to cover government project cost blowouts.
“It’s clear BPIC has no place in Queensland government procurement,” he said.
“Scrapping it is a smart and necessary step that will help our state meet its housing and infrastructure needs.”
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