One of my pet peeves is when uninformed people quote the wrong rules.
Firstly there is no requirement for a person to have an ABN. Whether or not they have an ABN does not make them necessarily an employee. The ATO has a whole webpage defying a contractor vs employee.
Secondly the strata manager can pay the PERSON. The person should provide theirvTFN. The strata manager then withholds tax and reports it to the ATO.
Its just that the strata manager is trying to take the easy way out.
And BTW, a principle of law is that once a lawful service is provided, the provider has to be paid, so the strata manager is breaking the law .