Documents Relating To The Road Transport Industry Roundtable On Sham Contracting And The Shadow Economy

Written by Claude Haiku 4.5 from the extracted text on 16 May 2026. It can miss or misread redacted and scanned pages. Check the source before relying on it.

In January 2026, the Department of Infrastructure met with the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations to discuss outcomes from a November 2025 Road Transport Industry Roundtable on sham contracting and the shadow economy. Industry participants called for stronger ATO enforcement of shadow economy compliance laws, while the ATO requested clearer employment definitions. DEWR indicated it had exhausted reasonable legislative options on sham contracting, pointing instead to a 2026 statutory review of Closing Loopholes reforms. Discussions revealed sham contracting as symptomatic of deeper competitive and regulatory pressures in road freight rather than an isolated issue. Officials noted the communiqué overstated agreed government actions and highlighted challenges in identifying genuine cases for investigation, as paying drivers via ABN does not automatically constitute sham contracting. The departments agreed Infrastructure would share analysis of the road freight industry's state to provide evidence informing future responses. Cleaning and construction industries were identified as also experiencing similar contracting issues.