Well this is some good news - not perfect -but better than the status quo.  We do need to see independent trust accounts set up that are administered by a government agency such as MoBIE to protect subcontractors retentions.  This is certainly a move in the right direction, but does still require some honesty on the part of the main contractor to put the money aside.  The penalties need to be SUBSTANTIAL for any developer or main contractor who does not hold these funds "in trust" for the subbies.  Mainzeal was a huge lesson to us all - you just didn't see it coming - the warning signs were not there  at all - so you didn't have any opportunity to protect yourself, and I suspect that is was very carefully engineered to be just so.  We need to ensure the Directors of Mainzeal are held to account if they have acted in any way improperly - and that includes those that resigned 24 hours or so before they went belly up.  At the moment the impact on them is negligible, they sit on other Boards - in the meantime $18 million of subbies money disappeared.  I hope this legislation is put through Parliament with the same urgency the retrospective legislation against plumbers, gasfitters and drainlayers was rammed through. 

Linkback: https://www.plumbers.nz/in-the-media-news/77/nick-smiths-announcement-regarding-retentions/1753/