Wednesday, 29 October 2025

 Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (12:56): (1913) My question is to the Minister for Housing and Building. In a recent video the minister said that every worker deserves to be paid fairly and promptly, but subcontractors from Pakenham and across Melbourne, including local plumber Aaron Lafranchi, are still waiting to be paid more than $4.3 million for work on government school projects that were completed over a year ago. The adjudicator has ruled that the Victorian School Building Authority must pay them under the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 2002, but instead the authority is using taxpayer dollars to fight the ruling in the Supreme Court. How can the minister claim to support fair and prompt payment while her own department refuses to pay tradies who have already won their case for work?