Category: 3. Business

Queensland Courts Reinforce Need for Specificity in Payment Schedules Under BIFA

Case note on Style Timber Floor Pty Ltd v Krivosudsky [2019] NSWCA 171 and Minimax Fire Fighting Systems Pty Ltd v Bremore Engineering (WA) Pty Ltd [2007] QSC 333

Executive Summary

The Queensland courts have confirmed that a payment schedule under the Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017 (Qld) (BIFA) must still clearly set out specific reasons for withholding payment. Although a payment schedule does not need to be a lengthy or formal document, it must still comply strictly with the statutory requirements.

The principles applied in Queensland reflect the reasoning of the New South Wales Court of Appeal in Style Timber Floor Pty Ltd v Krivosudsky [2019] NSWCA 171, as well as the Queensland Supreme Court’s decision in Minimax Fire Fighting Systems Pty Ltd v Bremore Engineering (WA) Pty Ltd [2007] QSC 333.

Courts in Queensland will not infer reasons from earlier correspondence or from background context.
A valid payment schedule must:

• clearly indicate what is being disputed, and
• clearly indicate why it is being disputed,
• within the four corners of the document itself.

Background

The facts in Style Timber Floor Pty Ltd v Krivosudsky [2019] NSWCA 171 involved the following:

• A payment claim for $106,166.50 was served.
• Within 10 business days, Style Timber responded with a short email stating:

“I will show you the working agreement… many emails, photos, videos, back charges from builders and other trades, complains from my clients. You will understand why I can’t pay you… The damages you done is more than what you claimed.”

• No actual reasons were stated within the email itself.
• The claimant sought summary judgment on the basis that no valid payment schedule had been provided.
• The District Court entered judgment for the full amount.
• Style Timber appealed, arguing the email was a payment schedule.

The Decision

The Court of Appeal dismissed Style Timber’s appeal. The Court held the email did not contain sufficient detail to constitute a valid payment schedule.

Key findings included:

• A payment schedule does not need to be formal, but that is not a licence for vague or generalised objections.
• If referring to other documents, the claimant must not be left to guess:
  • which documents are being referred to,
  • which parts of the documents contain the reasons.
• General complaints or vague dissatisfaction do not satisfy the requirement for “reasons”.
• A respondent cannot rely solely on contractual administrative requirements (e.g. missing certificates) as a reason to reject the substance of a payment claim.

The Queensland Position

The Court of Appeal expressly referred to the Queensland decision:

Minimax Fire Fighting Systems Pty Ltd v Bremore Engineering (WA) Pty Ltd [2007] QSC 333

In Minimax, the respondent sent an email responding to one item only out of several in a payment claim.

The Queensland Supreme Court held:

• If a payment schedule addresses only part of a payment claim, it is invalid.
• A valid payment schedule must:
  • respond to every item in the payment claim,
  • state the amount proposed to be paid for each item (even if $0),
  • provide specific reasons for withholding payment.

This remains consistent with ss 69 – 72 of BIFA, which adopts the same structure as the former BCIPA provisions and the equivalent NSW regime.

Key Takeaways

If you receive a payment claim in Queensland:

1. Always serve a payment schedule – even if you believe the claim is invalid.

Silence exposes you to summary judgment.

2. A valid payment schedule must:

• identify the payment claim,
• state the amount proposed to be paid (including $0),
• provide all reasons for withholding payment,
• address every line item of the claim.

3. Avoid vague statements such as:

• “We are not paying this.”
• “We will pay when works are complete.”
• “Refer to our earlier emails.”

These will not be accepted as valid reasons.

4. Do not rely on external documents unless specifically referenced with precision.

If you refer to another document, you should:

• attach it, or
• identify it with sufficient clarity.

5. Silence on any part of the claim risks the payment schedule being deemed invalid

Under Queensland law, failure to address even one component of the claim may invalidate the entire payment schedule.

We’re Here to Help

We at Chamberlains understand the emotional and financial stress that come with litigation. Should you require further information about how costs can be recoverable in matters before the Federal Court and Federal Circuit Court, please do not hesitate to contact our office for a consultation with our construction law team.

• President Donald Trump’s first year in office has ushered in big changes for clean energy in Michigan
• The state has seen $540 million in canceled climate grants and a dramatic decrease in green energy-related investments
• Analysts expect the trend to continue as shifting federal policies prompt a renewed embrace of gas-powered vehicles and fossil fuel energy generation

What a difference a year (and a political leadership change) makes. 

At this time in 2024, Michigan was expecting a windfall of federal funds to fuel a transition to clean energy, along with billions of dollars’ worth of green manufacturing projects subsidized by the Biden administration’s signature climate spending bills. 

But since President Donald Trump began his second term in January and began scrapping federal climate programs he refers to collectively as “the green new scam,” Michigan has seen a wave of project and grant cancellations, along with renewed investment in fossil fuel-based manufacturing and power generation.

Roughly $540 million in climate-related grants to Michigan have been canceled or held up since Inauguration Day, according to a national database compiled by Atlas Public Policy, while shifting market forces and the end of federal tax credits for electric vehicles have caused clean manufacturing investments in Michigan to whipsaw from billions annually in recent years to $3 billion in canceled investments this year.

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“It certainly mirrors what we’re seeing nationally,” said Annabelle Rosser, a research analyst with the national firm. 

Instead, Michigan automakers are scaling back and refocusing on gas and hybrid vehicle production — a trend emblemized by Ford’s and General Motors’ recent decisions to scrap EV production plans at Michigan plants and retool to produce gas-powered vehicles.

“That’s just the way the market is shaking out right now,” said Glenn Stevens, executive director of MichAuto, an affiliate of the Detroit Regional Chamber. 

It’s a trend likely to continue into 2026, as Trump administration officials continue their efforts to downplay climate change, deemphasize renewable energy and embrace fossil fuels.

Here’s where things stand in Michigan as the year draws to a close:

$540 million in canceled funding

Michigan has seen $540 million in cancelled funding, with the biggest chunk coming from the Solar for All Program, a $7 billion US Environmental Protection Agency fund meant to expand solar energy in disadvantaged communities.

Michigan had been slated to receive a $156 million grant through that fund, while Native American tribes in the state were expecting part of a $62 million grant shared with other Great Lakes tribes. 
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has sued over the grant cancellations, joining 22 other states to argue the administration “unilaterally and illegally terminated” the program, overstepping checks and balances to cancel congressionally approved funding. 

Beyond the solar program, the federal government has cancelled or proposed to cancel more than 20 Michigan grants ranging from $31.7 million to help LuxWall Inc. build an energy-efficient window glass factory in Detroit to $14,000 for a west Michigan climate resilience project.

Other canceled grants include: 

• $28.2 million for TS Conductor to build a high-capacity power line plant in Erie
• $20.4 million for Ecoworks, a Detroit nonprofit that planned to convert houses of worship into climate resilience hubs 
• $20 million for the Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan to improve energy efficiency in tribal homes
• $20 million for the Southwestern Michigan Planning Commission to build two resilience hubs in Benton Harbor, upgrade energy efficiency in low-income housing and support a workforce development initiative

Smaller grants would have funded energy efficient housing in Kalamazoo, a climate change and resilience plan for the city of Flint and wild rice bed restoration in Michigan waterways.

The Trump administration has also frozen a $20 billion federal “green bank” network that had been expected to send hundreds of millions of dollars to Michigan to build and rehab housing across the state, insulate old homes and boost energy efficiency in factories. 

Trump officials have signaled that more cancellations could be coming as they review tens of billions of dollars in clean energy funds awarded by the previous administration. 

Michigan utilities, for example, are awaiting word on the status of $15 billion in clean energy-related loans announced days before Trump took office. And the Trump administration is reevaluating a grant program that awarded $500 million to retool a Lansing GM factory for electrified vehicles.

An exception to the administration’s shift of resources away from Biden-era energy policies: It has continued making disbursements from a $1.5 billion loan authorized in 2024 to support the reopening of the Palisades nuclear power plant and in December announced another $400 million to develop two new reactors at the site.

“President Trump has made clear that America is going to build more energy, not less, and nuclear is central to that mission,” US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said in a statement accompanying the grant announcement.

$3 billion in canceled projects

Spurred along by federal and state subsidies and regulations that encouraged automakers to build EVs and consumers to buy them, Michigan manufacturers announced a collective $23.8 billion in new investments tied to the energy transition between 2022 and 2024, mostly related to battery or EV plants.

Fast-forward to 2025, and the trendline has reversed. Michigan saw $3 billion worth of disinvestment this year as companies scrapped planned EV factories or closed existing ones, according to the Atlas analysis. 

Spokespeople for the US Department of Energy, which has overseen efforts to reprioritize fossil fuels by shifting federal resources and loosening vehicle emissions regulations, did not respond to requests for comment from Bridge Michigan. 

But Trump has routinely cast EVs as a costly “scam” while downplaying the effects of climate change caused by burning fossil fuels like gasoline. During a December announcement that his administration would loosen fuel economy standards applying to new vehicles, Trump cast his pro-gas policies as a win for consumers that would “protect American jobs” and shave “at least $1,000 off the price of a new car.”

The biggest EV-related cancellation is the Gotion project, a once-planned $2.4 billion electric vehicle battery plant near Big Rapids that spent years embroiled in controversy before state officials declared the project dead this fall. 

In that case, Rosser, the Atlas analyst, said, shifting federal policies weren’t the only factor.

“The rollback of the (Inflation Reduction Act) clean energy tax credits, softening demand for electric vehicles, and concerns about the company’s foreign ownership are all likely factors,” Rosser said.

This fall, batterymaker XALT Energy announced plans to close its Midland headquarters and an Auburn Hills facility just two years after announcing plans to spend a “double digit million sum” expanding the facility.

Automotive supplier Dana Inc., which had vowed to invest $54.2 million at an Auburn Hills EV battery plant by the end of 2024, instead announced this fall that it would close the plant amid an “unexpected and immediate reduction in customer orders driven by lower demand for electric vehicles.”

Fortescue canceled an under-construction $210 million EV charger, battery and hydrogen generator plant at the former Fisher Body site in Detroit, citing shifting US markets and policies including the loss of “critical tax credits.”

Other losses included the closure of an Akasol electric vehicle battery factory in Warren and cancelled plans to build a TS Conductor high-voltage direct current conductor plant in Erie using a since-cancelled $28 million federal grant. 

TS Conductor is still building the plant, but switched locations to South Carolina after receiving what company CEO Jason Huang described as a “very generous incentive package.” 

Timelines and ambitions for numerous other EV and battery factory projects in Michigan have shifted amid the changing policies and market forces. GM, for instance, sold its stake in a planned EV battery factory near Lansing to LG Energy Solution and the plant’s planned opening has been delayed from 2025 to 2026. And Ford has scaled back plans for an EV battery plant near Marshall, now slated to open in 2026.

Stevens said he expects the EV market to grow in 2026, but “it’s not going to be at the acceleration curve that a lot of people projected, and certainly the previous administration was pushing.”

Related

Concerns over an ageing population are overblown and society should learn to celebrate and capitalise on its “massive cohort of healthy, active, older, creative adults”, a leading population expert has said.

While pundits and pressure groups have raised concerns over falling fertility rates, highlighting the challenges for the economy and healthcare, others are more upbeat, arguing the rise of the “silver economy” brings new opportunities for growth.

Prof Sarah Harper, director of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, said two-thirds of the world’s countries already had fertility rates below the replacement level needed to maintain the same size population in the next generation, and that the ageing of most populations was inevitable.

But she said that brought with it certain positives. Harper said: “This is a success in so much as every baby that is born will have the opportunity – or should have the opportunity – to be highly educated, healthy and live a long, healthy life.”

While acknowledging there would be people living into their 80s and 90s who would become frail and need care, Harper said the main opportunity was to capitalise on the increasing health and education of older adults, especially those aged 50 to 70.

She said: “There are some challenges [to an ageing population], but there are also huge opportunities and rather than try and resist it, or stop it, or divert it we should be looking for those opportunities, because we have this massive cohort of healthy, active, older, creative adults.

“And because we’re still stuck in 20th-century institutions that don’t appreciate them and benefit from them, we need to create new ways of living and working that enable us to take advantage of that massive group of adults.”

Experts have stressed the importance of retraining workers, flexible working and a general shift in attitudes towards older workers. Harper said it was also important to tackle inequalities around health and education so that all older adults could make a valuable contribution.

Official figures show the UK population is growing, largely as a result of migration, but also ageing, with 27% of the population expected to be 65 or older by 2072.

While the baby boomer cohort is particularly large, creating a population bulge that will greatly increase the numbers in the oldest age groups in the coming decades, Harper said younger generations were smaller – and more similar – in size. That means in future the age structure of the population will resemble a skyscraper rather than the traditional pyramid.

Harper said: “Providing high quality affordable childcare is the key to unlocking the potential of both younger and older adults.”

Yet even Scandinavian countries, which have emphasised gender equality and positive parenting, have failed to raise total fertility rates above replacement level.

Harper said: “What we should be doing is saying there are ways that we can support those, particularly women, who want to have children, and that’s around things like good jobs, good housing, good childcare, good gender equality.

“But there is always going to be a group, probably growing, of women who have decided that they, for all sorts of reasons, are not going to have children. And in a way, we’ve got to accept that and work with that.”

While Harper said concerns over Covid, the climate crisis and overpopulation might be factors in why some have chosen not to have children, she said there were other reasons too, such as not seeing having children as necessarily part of being an adult woman.

“I think that is a really big psychological shift,” she said.

Harper added the idea that a country needed a high fertility rate was rooted in the outdated view that lots of young people were needed to defend a country. “Actually, we don’t need any more. The world has changed,” she said. “High income countries don’t need babies. We just need to change the structure, the economic structure in particular.”

Harper said that people aged 50 to 70 were an “amazing resource” with valuable skills for a knowledge-based economy, with many willing and able to work longer.

She said: “People also financially know that if they’re going to retire at 60 and then live for another 40 years … it’s just unsustainable on the kind of pension system we have. One approach to pension reform without disadvantaging people on lower incomes with poorer health and less education would be to link the state pension to national insurance contributions rather than age.”

Harper said some had drawn parallels with the rise of women in the workforce.

She said: “In the 50s and early 60s, people were saying, ‘Well, what are we going to do if all these women enter the labour market? What are we going to do? It will completely disrupt everything.’ But of course, it happened and now one takes it for granted in many countries [that] of course, women are working equally to men. Well, it’s the same idea for older adults.”