McNab Constructions Australia P/L v Queensland Building Services Authority

[2010] QCA 380

Queensland Court of Appeal

Built by Barristers,
For Australian Law.

See how it works

Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Statutes
2. › Interpretation
3. › General approaches to interpretation
4. › Purposive construction
5. › Whether provision should be given its ordinary meaning where consistent with objects of the Act
6. › Whether similarly worded provisions in different parts of the same Act should be given the same construction
7. › Queensland Building Services Authority Act 1991 (Qld), s 72, s 42
1. Building and Construction Law
2. › Rectification of defective building work
3. › Power to direct rectification
4. › Whether construction manager who provided management and supervisory services was 'person who carried out the building work'
5. › Whether s 72(11)(b) operated independently of s 72(11)(a)
6. › Queensland Building Services Authority Act 1991 (Qld), s 72(1), s 72(5), s 72(11)
1. Statutes
2. › Interpretation
3. › Retrospectivity
4. › Presumption against retrospective operation of legislation
5. › Whether 2007 amendments to s 72 operated retrospectively to impose liability on construction manager whose contract was performed before amendments
6. › Whether amendments were procedural or substantive
7. › Queensland Building Services Authority Act 1991 (Qld), s 72(5)(f)

Quick Take

A construction manager who provides management, administration or supervisory services for building work is 'a person who carried out the building work' under s 72 of the QBSA Act and may be directed by the QBSA to rectify defective building work, even if the construction manager did not itself erect or construct the building. The narrow construction of 'building work' in s 42(2)(b) adopted in Puerto Galera does not apply to s 72(11)(b) because the provisions serve different purposes. The question of whether the 2007 amendments to s 72 operate retrospectively was not decided by the majority, as they held the pre-amendment provision already captured construction managers.