The Personal Property Securities (Ancillary Provisions) Bill 2010 is the second piece of legislation
introduced into the Queensland parliament to progress reforms to Australia’s personal property
securities law in Queensland.
On 1 September 2009 I introduced the first bill to progress this reform—the Personal Property
Securities (Commonwealth Powers) Bill 2009. That bill sought to refer power to the Commonwealth
parliament to make laws for the regulation of personal property securities in Queensland. That bill was
passed on 17 September 2009. As I indicated during my second reading speech for the referral bill, the
personal property securities reforms have been driven by the Council of Australian Governments as part
of a package of reforms aimed at delivering a seamless national economy.
During the introduction of the referral bill, I outlined the complex system of laws currently
regulating personal property securities in Australia. The national personal property securities reforms
aim to increase the availability of finance and reduce costs by providing less complicated arrangements
for securing interests in personal property and by rationalising this area of law. This will be achieved
through the establishment of a single national personal property securities law and a single national
electronic register for all personal property security interests.
In December 2009 the Commonwealth parliament passed the Personal Property Securities Act
2009. This Commonwealth act establishes the national register—the Personal Property Securities
Register, or PPS Register. The Commonwealth PPS Act provides the rules for registration of security
interests, the rules for determining priority of competing interests and enforcement of those interests. It
is anticipated the new national system, including the PPS Register, will commence in May 2011.
The bill I am introducing today will do three main things: it will close Queensland personal
property registers and repeal the acts that establish them; it opts out certain statutory licences and rights
from the national scheme where necessary; and it provides for prioritisation of cost recovery where
property is seized or acquired under law. I will address each of these goals in turn.
Establishing a national scheme requires amendments to repeal the acts that establish the
Queensland personal property registers, closure of the registers and migration of information included in
those registers to the new national PPS Register. Queensland registers to be shut down include the
Register of Encumbered Vehicles—commonly known as REVs—the Register of Cooperative Charges
and the Bills of Sale Register including the Register of Liens on Crops of Sugar Cane. The Queensland
registers will be shut down to coincide with the commencement of the PPS Register in May 2011.
Similar registers held by other jurisdictions will also be shut down.
The Commonwealth PPS Act provides for the migration of interests currently recorded on the
Queensland registers to the new PPS Register. This means secured parties will not have to re-register
interests currently recorded on existing registers. The Commonwealth act also includes measures to
protect the rights of parties in a migrated security interest. Migrated interests will be afforded the priority
they had under the existing state law.
The bill will enable migration of data from the Queensland registers to the PPS Register and the
ongoing maintenance of migrated interests by the PPS Registrar. For instance, it provides for the
provision of information to the PPS Registrar in relation to existing interests.
The bill will also provide necessary transitional arrangements to enable closure of the
Queensland registers. For instance, the bill prescribes the process for finalising applications by secured
parties for registration, renewal, discharge or change of particulars of an interest on foot at the date of
closure of the Queensland registers. The transitional provisions aim to protect the rights of all parties to
interests recorded on the Queensland registers and to assist with the transition to the new national
register.
The second main goal of the bill is to opt out of the national scheme a number of state based
statutory licences, rights, entitlements and other authorities. Under the Commonwealth PPS Act,
‘personal property’ does not include a licence, right, entitlement or authority granted by a state law,
which is capable of being transferred, if declared by the state law not to be personal property for the
purposes of the Commonwealth PPS Act.
The Commonwealth PPS Act recognises that, even where a licence, right, entitlement or authority
issued by the state might be transferable and may be used as collateral, there may be sound reasons
for excluding them from the national scheme. The bill will opt out of the national scheme mining leases
and exploration permits, energy licences, casino licences, operating authorities and gaming machine
entitlements, liquor licences and wine producer and merchant licences.
The rationale for excluding the above licences, rights and entitlements is outlined in the
explanatory notes. These include, for example, that the legislation establishing certain licences only
permits the assignment of a licence to a person approved by the Governor-in-Council, prohibits
encumbering an operating authority, or a licence is site specific.
The third main goal of the bill is to ensure that statutory charges and other interests in personal
property created under Queensland law will be afforded the same priority they have prior to the
commencement of the Commonwealth PPS Act. The Commonwealth PPS Act will only apply to security
interests defined by the act. This would not include, for example, statutory interests created without
consent, such as charges under the Criminal Proceeds Confiscation Act 2002 or statutory liens under
the Storage Liens Act 1973.
In this regard, the bill includes provisions to clarify that the state and other interested parties,
including local governments, can continue to recover the expenses of seizing or impounding property
and disposing of that property above the interest of other secured parties. The bill also ensures that in
appropriate cases, amounts owing to secured interest holders can be paid out of the proceeds of sale of
seized or impounded property, before paying any money to the owner of the property.
Finally, the bill will make minor consequential amendments across a range of Queensland acts.
Primarily, these amendments will replace references to acts repealed by the bill. Changes will also be
made to terminology to align language with the Commonwealth PPS Act, where appropriate. I commend
the bill to the House.
Debate, on motion of Ms Simpson, adjourned.
