Adjudication in Australia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is threefold; first, to give a background to the security of payment problem in the New South Wales construction industry and the problem giving rise to the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Amendment Act 2010 (NSW) (“2010 Amendment Act”); second, to provide an analysis of the operation of the 2010 Amendment Act; and finally, to address the main implications of the amendments for the three parties involved, namely the claimant, the respondent and the “Principal contractor”.Design/methodology/approach – A review of the relevant literature was undertaken on the security of payment problem in the NSW construction industry and the problem giving rise to the 2010 Amendment Act. A “black‐letter” approach is adopted to analyse and explain the provisions contained in the 2010 Amendment Act. At the time of writing, no case law relevant to the amendments had been published.Findings – The amendments brought about by the 2010 Amendment Act add appreciably to th...