The lot owner in question, who is also a member of the strata committee, has said that more than one quote would only need to be presented if the quote is above 30K as per law.
Whenever someone says it is “the law” to do something, I like to check. I google searched “Strata Schemes Management Act 2015”. Scroll down to “Section 102 Limits on Spending by Owners Corporation“. Paragraph 1 says:
(1) An owners corporation must obtain at least 2 independent quotations for proposed expenditure for an item or matter that is more than the amount prescribed by the regulations for this section.
That lead me to google search “Strata Schemes Management Regulations 2016”. Section 25 says:
25 Limits on spending by owners corporations
For the Act, section 102(1), the prescribed amount is $30,000.
Conclusion: the strata committee is not legally obliged to obtain a second quote. However, as Jimmy explained, owners can call a general meeting and vote in favour of getting multiple quotes. (The procedure for calling a general meeting is explained the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015.)
Would Owners’ attending Fair Trading mediation be able to make a case for more than one quote and for it to be accepted or do we just have to be strong-armed into this quote that the strata committee seems bent on.
One strata committee member has convinced the other members of the strata committee to approve $20K worth of work on their own lot. Are you concerned that this strata committee has abused their position? Is the service provider a friend/relative of that strata committee member?
Refer to the minutes of the last Annual General Meeting. At every AGM, there should be a motion passed to show if there are any limitations on what the strata committee can do on behalf of the owners corporation. If that motion has no limits on what the strata committee can do, I think it will be hard to stop this work.
For future reference, it is really important to read every motion on the AGM agenda. If you want to put a hard limit e.g. $1,000 on spending by the strata committee, owners can vote on it at the next general meeting. The argument against setting a limit is that the owners corporation would have to stop everything and call an Extraordinary General Meeting for jobs costing more than a certain amount. Owners would have to decide what is a reasonable spending limit for the strata committee.