The Air Conditioning and Mechanical Contractors Association of Australia (AMCA) has released an adoption timeline for the National Construction Code (NCC) 2025 covering all states and territories.
While NCC 2025 is available for adoption from May 1, 2026, jurisdictions are taking varied approaches, including early adoption, delayed implementation, staged rollouts, and in some cases, policy positions to pause elements of the update.
For industry, this creates increasing complexity. This is why AMCA is monitoring adoption closely and publishing information, as it becomes available, for its members.
“Contractors, designers, and suppliers operating across multiple jurisdictions will be required to navigate different NCC editions, varying commencement dates, and jurisdiction-specific provisions, often within the same project pipeline,” AMCA said in a statement.
While Queensland and NSW have delayed adoption until 2027, the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia are yet to confirm adoption dates.
Victoria is moving ahead with early adoption, aligned with the national release. Victoria has also mandated lead-free plumbing products.
The ACT has allowed a six month transition period making NCC 2025 mandatory from November 1, 2026.
In its NCC submission to the federal government, the Australian Institute of Refrigeration, Air Conditioning & Heating (AIRAH) said adoption dates need to be consistent across jurisdictions.
“Some stakeholders have proposed a long pause on changes to the NCC, but it is unrealistic to believe that the NCC will remain static. Society’s needs and technology are constantly changing, and the code will need to respond,” the submission said.
“The NCC is a performance-based code that sets minimum standards. Industry consistently highlights that it is not aspirational and that we should do better.
“When the NCC sets a minimum, the system currently rewards delivering the minimum because it costs less.
“If that minimum is not considered adequate from a societal, safety or performance perspective, then the minimum itself should be raised – rather than expecting developers, installers, designers or building owners to voluntarily exceed it at their own cost.”
The body responsible for the NCC, the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) plans to release a full list of adoption dates for states and territories when the code is published on May 1, 2026.