Award wages, superannuation, parental leave, compliance and tax reforms all land in the same week. Here is the full picture.
A new financial year always brings change.
This one is carrying more than usual.
Award wages are rising. Superannuation moves to payday. Paid parental leave expands again. New compliance obligations come into force for builders working in New South Wales. South Australia tightens its fall height rules on site. And a tax measure worth real money is restored permanently for companies that have had a difficult year.
Not every change affects every builder. Some are national. Some are state-specific. Some have been covered here in detail already. This piece brings them all together so you can work out what applies to your business and what needs attention before the end of the week.
Award Wages Rise 4.75 Per Cent
The Fair Work Commission handed down its 2026 Annual Wage Review decision on 2 June, increasing minimum award wages by 4.75 per cent from 1 July 2026. The National Minimum Wage rises to $26.44 per hour, or $1,004.90 per week based on a 38-hour week. That is the first time it has crossed $1,000 per week.
The increase applies from the first full pay period starting on or after 1 July. It covers employees paid at award minimums under the Building and Construction General On-site Award and related construction awards.
The 4.75 per cent lift is larger than the 3.5 per cent applied in 2025. Industry data published in April 2026 put the aggregate cost increase for the year at 7 to 7.5 per cent across fuel, materials, wages, superannuation, insurance, interest rates and government charges. This wage movement is one part of that larger picture.
For builders running fixed-price contracts priced earlier this year, the practical question is whether your margins still work at the new rates. A mid-project wage increase on a contract where labour was already tight is not a minor administrative adjustment.
Enterprise agreements are also worth checking. The base pay rate in any registered agreement cannot fall below the new award minimum. If yours has not been reviewed recently, that check is worth doing now rather than when a payroll discrepancy surfaces.
Superannuation Moves to Payday
The quarterly superannuation system that has governed payroll obligations since 1992 ends on 30 June.
Under the Treasury Laws Amendment (Payday Superannuation) Act 2025, super must now be paid alongside wages on every payday. Contributions must reach the employee’s super fund within seven business days. The rate stays at 12 per cent. What has changed is the timing, and for builders running weekly or fortnightly payrolls, that timing change is material.
The three-month buffer that many small building businesses relied on to smooth cash flow between progress claims is gone. For a builder paying eight employees weekly, that is up to 52 super payments a year instead of four.
The ATO’s Small Business Superannuation Clearing House also closes on 30 June. Businesses that have not already transitioned to a SuperStream-compliant alternative need to act now. Payments made through the clearing house after it closes will not reach funds on time, and the Super Guarantee Charge applies to any contribution not received within seven business days of payday.
The reform is sound policy. Unpaid super has been a persistent problem in construction specifically. Workers lose retirement savings when businesses fail before a quarterly payment is made. But good policy and difficult timing are not mutually exclusive, and this lands on an industry already carrying record insolvencies and margins squeezed by two years of cost pressure.
Paid Parental Leave Reaches 26 Weeks
The government’s Paid Parental Leave scheme reaches its full planned expansion on 1 July 2026: 26 weeks, or 130 days, of government-funded leave for eligible parents of children born or adopted from that date.
This is the final step in a three-stage expansion that began in 2024, when the scheme moved from 20 to 22 weeks, and went to 24 weeks in 2025.
A new shared care rule also applies from 1 July. Twenty days of the 130 are reserved for the partner on a use-it-or-lose-it basis. Single parents access the full 130 days. Payments are made at the national minimum wage.
Superannuation on government-funded Parental Leave Pay also starts flowing in July 2026. The ATO began paying the Paid Parental Leave Superannuation Contribution for parents who received PPL in 2025-26, with contributions going directly to their super funds. Employers do not calculate or pay this. The ATO does. But workers in your business who were on parental leave during 2025-26 will see these payments hit their super accounts from July 2026 onwards.
For builders with employees of parenting age, the practical implications are workforce planning and leave scheduling. The entitlement has grown. More workers will take it, for longer. That is worth accounting for in resourcing decisions rather than being caught short when someone puts in a request.
South Australia Lowers Its Fall Height Threshold
From 1 July 2026, construction work in South Australia where someone could fall more than two metres is classified as high-risk construction work. The previous threshold was three metres.
That drop sounds small. The practical effect is not. Almost any roof job on a single-storey home in SA now triggers the formal high-risk classification, which means a Safe Work Method Statement must be prepared before the work starts, written for the specific site and task, and available on site while the work is under way.
This brings SA into line with the national model WHS regulations that already apply in most other states and territories. Queensland remains an outlier at three metres specifically for housing construction.
For builders already running Safe Work Method Statements as standard and scaffolding single-storey roof work, this is largely procedural. For those who are not, the start of the financial year is the time to fix that. SafeWork SA is the relevant authority for questions about specific site obligations.
NSW: The DBP Act Expands to Class 3 and 9c Buildings
This one has not had the attention it deserves, partly because it does not affect residential house builders directly. But for anyone doing renovation or remedial work in NSW on hospitality buildings, boarding houses, student housing, or aged care facilities, it is significant.
From 1 July 2026, the NSW Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020 extends to cover alteration, repair and renovation work on existing Class 3 and Class 9c buildings.
Class 3 covers boarding houses, hotels and motels, student accommodation, and similar multi-resident buildings. Class 9c covers residential care buildings, including aged care.
The DBP Act has applied to new Class 3 and 9c buildings since July 2023. What changes on 1 July is its reach into remedial and renovation work on buildings already standing.
Under the expanded framework, a registered design practitioner must prepare a Construction Issued Regulated Design before work starts, capturing the regulated scope and confirming compliance with the Building Code of Australia. That design must be lodged on the NSW Planning Portal by a registered building practitioner before work begins.
Practitioners who are already registered to work on Class 2 buildings do not need a separate registration for Class 3 and 9c work. But registration is required, and the design and declaration obligations are real. Work that may have proceeded informally a year ago now requires a registered practitioner and documented compliance pathway.
This expansion was deferred twice: originally planned for July 2024, then pushed to July 2025. It is not being deferred again. The NSW Building Commission has enforcement powers and has been active in the Class 2 space. That scrutiny will now extend to this broader category of building.
For builders with any work in this space, confirming your registration status and understanding the NSW Planning Portal lodgement process before you start the next job is not optional.
Loss Carry Back Returns Permanently
For building companies that have had a hard year, this is worth understanding properly.
From 1 July 2026, the loss carry back mechanism is reinstated permanently for Australian companies with annual turnover under $1 billion. Under this measure, a company making a tax loss in the 2026-27 income year can elect to carry that loss back against tax paid in either 2024-25 or 2025-26 and receive a cash refund.
Construction revenue is uneven by nature. A company that paid tax in profitable years and then absorbed a project loss, a defect dispute or a period of underutilised capacity in 2025-26 no longer has to wait for a future profitable year to access relief. The refund arrives when the company lodges its tax return for the loss year. It is real money, returned at the point the business actually needs it.
The measure applies to companies only. Sole traders, partnerships and discretionary trusts are not eligible. And whether to apply loss carry back or carry the loss forward is a decision that depends on a specific set of factors including the company’s franking account position and forecast future profit. It is a tax agent conversation, not a bookkeeping one.
WA: Builder Registration Threshold for Sheds and Garages Rises
A narrower change for Western Australian builders. From 1 July 2026, builder registration is no longer required for Class 10a non-habitable structures — sheds, garages, carports and similar — valued under $50,000. The previous threshold was $20,000.
Building permits remain compulsory. All work must still comply with applicable building standards. Consumers who experience defective work on unregistered projects can still lodge complaints with the Building Commissioner. What changes is who can carry out the work below the new threshold.
For registered builders focused on residential housing, the more relevant implication is the policy intent behind the change: the government explicitly framed this as a way to free up registered builders to focus on housing projects.
The National Environment Protection Agency Opens
This matters more for developers and larger project proponents than for residential builders directly, but it is part of the regulatory landscape shifting.
The National Environment Protection Agency commences on 1 July 2026, as part of the federal government’s overhaul of national environment laws. These reforms were legislated in late 2025 and have been staged through a series of commencement dates since February 2026.
NEPA is the new federal body that will oversee environmental assessment and approval under the reformed framework. The remaining changes to approval pathways — specifically the parts affecting project timelines for developments that trigger federal assessment — are scheduled to commence on or before 1 December 2026.
For the large share of residential building that never triggers federal environmental assessment, the direct day-to-day impact is limited. For builders and developers working on larger projects near sensitive ecological areas, the transition period through the rest of 2026 is worth watching.
What This Adds Up To
Taken individually, none of these changes is designed to make life harder for builders. Wages keeping pace with inflation is fair. Unpaid super is a genuine problem the new system is trying to fix. Better parental leave is good policy. Compliance frameworks that hold practitioners accountable raise standards across the industry.
Taken together, they land in the same week on a sector that is absorbing a contraction in work done for the first time since the COVID period, an insolvency rate that remains the highest of any sector in the economy, and a cost base that has risen roughly 35 per cent since 2019.
The businesses that come through this period in good shape are the ones that treat the administrative side with the same discipline they bring to site. Progress claims out on time. Variations documented. Payroll systems updated. Compliance obligations checked and confirmed before the job starts.
None of that is glamorous. But it is what separates the businesses still standing in three years from the ones that are not.
General Information Disclaimer: This article provides general information about regulatory and legislative changes effective 1 July 2026. It is not legal, financial or work health and safety advice. Builders and contractors should confirm their specific obligations with the relevant regulator, a licensed adviser or a qualified professional for their state and circumstances.
Your Questions Answered:
Q: What changes for builders on 1 July 2026?
Several changes take effect on 1 July 2026 that affect builders, tradies and construction businesses across Australia. Award wages rise 4.75 per cent under the Fair Work Commission’s 2026 Annual Wage Review. Payday super replaces the quarterly superannuation system, requiring super to be paid alongside wages on every payday. Paid Parental Leave expands to 26 weeks for eligible parents. South Australia lowers its high-risk fall threshold from three metres to two, meaning most roof work on single-storey homes now requires a Safe Work Method Statement. In New South Wales, the Design and Building Practitioners Act expands to cover renovation and remedial work on existing Class 3 and Class 9c buildings. The loss carry back mechanism is also reinstated permanently for eligible companies from the 2026-27 income year.
Q: How much do award wages increase from 1 July 2026?
The Fair Work Commission announced a 4.75 per cent increase to minimum award wages from 1 July 2026, following its 2026 Annual Wage Review decision on 2 June 2026. The National Minimum Wage rises to $26.44 per hour, or $1,004.90 per week based on a 38-hour week — the first time it has crossed $1,000 per week. The increase applies from the first full pay period starting on or after 1 July 2026 and covers employees paid at award minimums under the Building and Construction General On-site Award and related construction awards. Builders should also check that any enterprise agreements in place have base rates that meet or exceed the new award minimums.
Q: What is payday super and when does it start?
Payday super is the name for a change to how employers pay superannuation in Australia. From 1 July 2026, employers must pay their employees’ superannuation guarantee contributions on every payday rather than quarterly. Contributions must reach the employee’s super fund within seven business days of payday. The rate remains 12 per cent, calculated on qualifying earnings. The ATO’s Small Business Superannuation Clearing House closes on 30 June 2026, so businesses using it must transition to a SuperStream-compliant alternative before that date. The Super Guarantee Charge applies to any contribution not received by a fund within seven business days of payday.
Q: What is the NSW DBP Act expansion on 1 July 2026?
From 1 July 2026, the NSW Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020 expands to cover alteration, repair and renovation work on existing Class 3 and Class 9c buildings. Class 3 includes boarding houses, hotels and motels, and student accommodation. Class 9c covers residential care buildings including aged care facilities. Under the expanded framework, a registered design practitioner must prepare a Construction Issued Regulated Design before work begins, and that design must be lodged on the NSW Planning Portal by a registered building practitioner. The DBP Act already applied to new Class 3 and 9c buildings from July 2023. The expansion to existing buildings was deferred twice before taking effect on 1 July 2026.
Q: What happens with paid parental leave from 1 July 2026?
From 1 July 2026, Australia’s government-funded Paid Parental Leave scheme increases to 26 weeks, or 130 days, for eligible parents of children born or adopted from that date. This is the final stage of a phased expansion that began in 2024. Twenty days of the 130 are reserved for the partner on a use-it-or-lose-it basis. Single parents can access all 130 days. Payments are made at the national minimum wage and administered through Services Australia. Separately, the ATO begins paying superannuation contributions on government-funded Parental Leave Pay from July 2026 for parents who received PPL in the 2025-26 financial year. Employers do not calculate or pay this contribution — the ATO pays it directly to the employee’s super fund.
This article is intended for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or professional advice. Laws, regulations, and industry requirements vary by state and territory and change over time. Builders and trades professionals should seek independent advice relevant to their specific circumstances before making business, legal, or financial decisions.
Author: TGB Editorial
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