Implementation
The Australian Law Reform Commission's report was widely criticised by legal practitioners and the finance industry. Some of this criticism related to minor technical aspects of the report, however a substantial portion of the criticism disagreed with the Commission's approach in two areas: the use of a functional definition to determine exactly what is a security, and the Commission's decision to depart from Article 9 of the United States Unified Commercial Code, which has provided the basis for legislative reforms in several other countries. Many critics argued that departing from Article 9 was undertaking unnecessary effort and posed an unnecessary risk.
Since the tabling of the ALRC report in 1993, the US law in this area has been revised and similar laws have been introduced in Canada and New Zealand. Support for reform has continued in Australia, in particular a consideration of introducing consistency between the laws of Australia, the US, Canada and New Zealand.
In April 2006, the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General released an Options Paper on the issues, and the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department is chairing an officers' working group to develop proposals for Ministers to consider.
Three Discussion Papers seeking further stakeholder input were published in late 2007.
In May 2008, the Australian Government released for public comment draft legislation proposing significant reform to the law and practice relating to personal property securities. The Personal Property Securities Bill would establish a single national law governing security interests in personal property. It would address the creation and extinguishment of security interests in personal property and set out rules for determining priority among competing interests in personal property, and establish a single national online register of personal property securities (the PPS Register). If implemented, the Bill will substantially implement the ALRC’s recommendations from ALRC 64. On 12 November 2008, the Australian Parliament Senate referred the exposure draft of the Personal Property Securities Bill 2008 to the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs for inquiry and report by 24 February 2009.
[previous]
The information on this page was current as of 11 December 2008
Back to top