What is the Security of Payment Act?
Security of Payment legislation gives everyone who carries out construction work in Australia a statutory right to progress payments and a fast adjudication process to enforce it — rights that exist regardless of what the contract says and cannot be contracted out of. Every state and territory has its own Act: seven follow the East Coast model built on payment claims and payment schedules, while the Northern Territory runs the distinct West Coast model.
The East Coast machine
The East Coast model (QLD, NSW, VIC, WA, SA, TAS, ACT) runs on an exchange of documents with statutory deadlines. You serve a payment claim; the respondent must serve a payment schedule within the statutory window — 10 business days in NSW, VIC, TAS and the ACT, 15 in QLD, SA and WA — stating what they'll pay and every reason for paying less. Miss the window and the full claimed amount becomes a debt due, with defences barred at adjudication. Disputed amounts go to an adjudicator who decides in weeks.
Each state has its own edges: Queensland's BIF Act caps subcontract payment terms at 25 business days and routes adjudication through the QBCC; NSW caps head-contractor-to-subcontractor payment at 20 business days and requires retention trusts on larger projects; Victoria abolished its old excluded-amounts regime from 15 April 2026, so damages and disputed variations can now generally be adjudicated there too; WA runs two regimes depending on whether the contract predates 1 August 2022.
The NT exception
The Northern Territory's Construction Contracts (Security of Payments) Act 2004 is the last pure West Coast model: no claim/schedule exchange, but when a payment claim under the contract is rejected or unpaid, a 'payment dispute' arises and either party has 90 days to apply for adjudication. The window is generous but strict — and the whole analysis differs from the East Coast, which is why the scanner and Claim Pro are calibrated per state.
Know where your contract stands
Clause-by-clause risk report against your state's Security of Payment laws in about 90 seconds.
Scan my subcontract freeCommon questions
Does the Act apply to my subcontract?
If you carry out construction work or supply related goods and services in Australia, almost certainly — the Acts are deliberately broad, with narrow exclusions (notably around residential work in some states, with rules varying by state). The Act of the state where the construction work is carried out generally applies.
Can the contract exclude the Security of Payment Act?
No. Provisions that attempt to contract out of the Act are void, and pay-when-paid clauses are void in every jurisdiction. This is what makes the Act the strongest card a subcontractor holds — it can't be drafted away.
Which state's rules apply to my job?
Generally the state where the construction work is performed — though contracts sometimes carry a different governing-law clause, and the ACT's Act notably follows the contract rather than the territory's borders. When you scan a contract, pick the state where the work is; the report flags mismatches with the contract's stated governing law.
Keep reading
General information for Australian subcontractors, not legal advice — statutory deadlines and details vary by state and change over time; verify them before relying on them. Written by Mat Kennedy at The Construction Contracts Co.