Inquiry into the Personal Property Securities Bill 2008 [Exposure
Draft]
Information about the Inquiry
Download this document - (PDF 1485KB)
Personal Property Securities Bill 2008 – Exposure draft
On 12 November 2008, the Senate referred an exposure
draft of the Personal Property Securities Bill 2008 to the Standing
Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs for inquiry and report.
The exposure draft, dated 10 November 2008, is available on the
committee's website here (PDF 1485KB). This draft is a revised version
of that originally released by the Attorney-General on 16 May 2008.
The Attorney-General's Department has also released a revised commentary on
the Exposure Draft for December 2008 which you can find here (PDF 962KB).
The Attorney-General has advised the committee that the
Council of Australian Governments (COAG) has agreed to implement a new
personal property securities (PPS) system by May 2010; and that on 2 October
2008, COAG Ministers signed an inter-governmental agreement on PPS reform.
The Attorney-General has also advised that the PPS Bill
will be supported by a referral of legislative power by the States to the
Commonwealth; and that to effect a referral of power, referral legislation
will need to be passed by each State Parliament. He also advised that it
will be necessary to settle the final text of the Bill with the States
before it is introduced into any of the State Parliaments or the
Commonwealth Parliament.
Personal Property Securities Reform
Personal property is any form of property other than
land or buildings. It includes tangibles such as cars and machinery, and
intangibles such as shares, intellectual property and contract rights.
Personal property securities are created when a secured party takes an
interest in personal property as security for a loan or other obligation, or
enters into a transaction that in substance involves the provision of
secured finance (such as a lease, factoring of book debts or a retention of
title arrangement.) Secured lending against items of personal property is a
major element of both consumer and business financing in Australia.
The current PPS system is characterised by more than 70
pieces of Commonwealth, State and Territory legislation and more than 40
different registers of security interests in personal property. The
Government considers that this system is unnecessarily restrictive in a
modern national economy and creates unnecessary costs and complexity for
lenders and borrowers.
The Government describes the proposed new PPS regime as
a significant micro-economic reform and considers it to be a key aspect of
the deregulation agenda. It contends that PPS reform will have a number of
significant benefits, as follows.
-
It will provide greater certainty concerning whether
personal property is subject to a security interest;
-
It will introduce arrangements that apply
consistently and comprehensively throughout Australia;
-
It should reduce the cost associated with taking and
enforcing security interests in personal property, and with ascertaining
whether particular property is subject to a security interest.
-
The reform of personal property securities law
should facilitate small to medium sized enterprises making all of their
capital available to financiers as security for loans, and therefore
offers the potential to improve their access to cheaper finance.
The 2007-08 Budget included funding for the
Attorney-General's Department of $113.3m over five years to progress PPS
reform. The reform would involve the creation of a single piece of
Commonwealth Legislation underpinned by a referral of legislative power from
the States, to regulate PPS interests. The legislative change would be
supported by the creation of a single, national electronic register of PPS
interests.
The committee's inquiry
The reporting
date for this inquiry is 5 March 2009.
The Committee
invites written submissions by Wednesday 10 December 2008.
Submissions
should be sent to:
Committee
Secretary
Senate Standing Committees on Legal and Constitutional Affairs
Department of
the Senate
PO Box 6100
Parliament
House
Canberra ACT
2600
Australia
The committee encourages the lodgement
of submissions in electronic form. As the secretariat is in the process of
implementing a new system for lodging submissions via the Parliament's
website, you are strongly encouraged to revisit this webpage for further
details about how to do this. Alternatively, intending submitters requiring
further information could also contact the secretariat before lodging your
submission.
Notes to assist in preparing submissions are available
from the website
https://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/wit_sub/index.htm or telephone
the secretariat on 02 6277 3560, fax: 02 6277 5794, or e-mail at the above
address.
Once the committee accepts your submission, it becomes
a confidential committee document and is protected by Parliamentary
Privilege. You must not release your submission without the committee’s
permission. If you do, it is not protected by Parliamentary Privilege. At
some stage during the inquiry, the committee normally makes submissions
public. Please indicate if you want your submission to be kept confidential.
Inquiries from hearing and speech impaired people
should be directed to the Parliament House TTY number (02 6277 7799). Adobe
also provides tools for the blind and visually impaired to access PDF
documents. These tools are available at:
http://access.adobe.com. If you require any special arrangements in
order to enable you to participate in a committee inquiry, please contact
the committee secretary.
For further information, contact:
Committee Secretary
Senate Standing Committees on Legal and Constitutional Affairs
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia
Top
|