Page 1239 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 23 March 2010
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onwards without repaying the loan. This example explains the core purpose of personal property securities legislation. The law allows for businesses and consumers to obtain loans with assurances of repayment, and registration ensures that information about those loans is available to make others who deal with that property aware of the loan.
Currently, every jurisdiction in Australia has its own unique laws governing these kinds of transactions. As a result, if you wish to create a security in more than one state, you are required to understand many different pieces of legislation, to meet a wide array of very technical requirements and to search numerous registers for information about the property that underlies the transaction.
The personal property securities reform will create a one-stop shop for Australian businesses and consumers. This will make it easier for people who cross between jurisdictions because the law will remain the same. Also, the single register will mean that there is a definitive source for relevant information. The costs of obtaining finance will be reduced because the burdens involved for both businesses and consumers will be fewer.
The bill we are debating today will begin the implementation of personal property securities reform in the territory. There are two primary components that need to be addressed: first, the statute book needs to be updated to reflect the change; second, information on the territory’s registers must be transferred to the new commonwealth register. The bill provides for both steps to begin so that the territory is fully prepared when the reform commences.
Some of the more significant aspects of the bill are the repeal of the Instruments Act 1933 and the removal of certain provisions from the Sale of Motor Vehicles Act 1977. The Instruments Act provides for things such as a hire-purchase agreement or a bill of sale to be recorded by the Registrar-General. The act is being repealed because it deals entirely with interests and transactions that will in the future be governed by the commonwealth Personal Property Securities Act.
In future, all bills of sale and instruments that would have been taken to the Registrar-General will go to the single commonwealth register. Information about automobile loans was previously held for the territory on the Register of Encumbered Vehicles, which is administered by New South Wales. The Sale of Motor Vehicles Act 1977 is being amended to remove references to this system, as that register will also be transferred to the commonwealth.
Because of the broad scope of this reform, it is important to ensure that flexibility and the ability to respond to changes is built into the process. This is a highly technical area of the law, but it has implications throughout the statute book. For this reason, the bill includes a very broadly worded power to create transitional regulations to help the territory move the reform towards completion. The bill also authorises the Registrar-General to take any measures necessary to ensure that information from the territory’s registers is transferred to the new commonwealth register. This will ensure that residents of the ACT are not left behind when the new scheme begins to operate.
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