Average amount of a contractor's most recent claim for delayed or disputed payment under security of payment laws, Australia 2017 survey

What it is. Australian dollars claimed per incident: the amount of the respondent's most recent claim for delayed or disputed payment made under a security of payment Act, averaged over the respondents who had made one.

Sample. A survey commissioned for the Murray Review and run by AMR Interactive: 526 responses from contractors and subcontractors in all states and territories, circulated by industry associations on a voluntary basis. Only 23% of respondents had ever made a claim under security of payment laws, so the average can only be over those claimants; the report does not give their number, and does not say how many answered the amount question. The most common band among those who claimed in the last two years was $100,001 to $500,000 (25%). Not all of this money was awarded or lost: this is what was claimed.

What it is not. Money claimed, not money lost or awarded: the claim may be for delayed payment as well as disputed payment, and the report gives no outcome for it. A self-selected sample: 46.8% of respondents were from Queensland, 30.8% from Western Australia and 17.9% from NSW, which leaves 4.5% for Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, the Territories and the ACT together; 45% were electrical contractors and 73% worked for firms of 20 or fewer people. The average therefore describes small and medium trades in three states and is not a typical national claim. It is one claim per respondent (the most recent), as the respondents recalled it. The report writes 'average' and does not say whether it is a mean or a median; no median is given. The report does not date the survey; the Review ran during 2017, which is the price year used. A per-claim amount, not a share of contract value, so it is never multiplied by one.

Where it came from

• J Murray AM, for the Australian Government (Department of Jobs and Small Business) (2017), Review of Security of Payment Laws: Building Trust and Harmony
  Appendix B 'Survey of contractors', 'Security of payment laws and claims made', p.324 · source record

Considered and set aside

• Griffith University (Campos Gutierrez, Panuwatwanich and Walker): Payments were a factor in 50 of 78 Australian court cases, but that counts cases and gives no amounts.
• Liu (DGA Australia): Amounts claimed and determined for NSW, Queensland and Victoria only, so state-level and not an AU figure.
• NSW Department of Finance & Services (statistics by the UNSW Adjudication Research + Reporting Unit): NSW 2011-12 adjudication amounts only; state-level and fourteen years old.
• Western Sydney University and Griffith University (Rahnamayiezekavat and others): Payment is 31% of 230 NSW cases, a frequency for one state with no amounts.
• Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (ACICA): National arbitration caseload with total values but no payment-dispute split.

disputes/payment_dispute_sop_claim_amount_au · AU · F ·the record ·link to this figure ·dispute this figure(or email support@demiton.io)