Mister Speaker, I move that the Bill be now read a second time.

certain powers and responsibilities in relation to personal

property securities to the Commonwealth Government.

necessary to facilitate the transfer of responsibility for personal

property securities to the Commonwealth and to deal with the

exclusion of certain property that could be used as collateral

for a security from coverage by the Commonwealth Act.

The Bill allows for the transfer of information held on four

Tasmanian securities registers to the new Commonwealth

Personal Property Securities Register.

pieces of legislation will be subsumed into the Commonwealth

Personal Property Securities Register. The Bill will also repeal

register of cooperative charges as the securities that would be

registered there will now be registered on the Commonwealth

Personal Property Securities Register.

As noted in the debate on the referral legislation there was to

be ongoing discussion as to what licences issued by Tasmanian

authorities should be excluded from the ambit of the

Commonwealth legislation. After extensive consultation with

Tasmanian Government Departments, it has been determined

that only a small number of licences and leases are to be

as a security or are subject to an existing registration scheme

which achieves a similar purpose to the registration of

securities in the PPS Register.

Consistent with a decision made at national level, all licences

operation of the Commonwealth Act. I am advised that there

is already a comprehensive, industry specific regime in place

dealing with the recording of interests of third parties in

licences which is nationally consistent. Therefore, the industry

does not consider that there is a need to also register interests

on the Personal Property Securities Register.

Licences under the Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act 1982 will

also be excluded from the operation of PPS legislation.

Currently there is one pipeline licence issued under this Act. It

is a pipeline from Victoria to Tasmania and the Tasmanian end

continues on from licences in Commonwealth and Victorian

waters. The Commonwealth are exempting all titles under

their offshore petroleum legislation so it would make no sense

for the Tasmanian part of the pipeline to be captured by the

PPS legislation. As the pipelines themselves run across the

waters of different jurisdictions, the licences issued to allow

them are not suitable for use as a personal property security.

The States and Territories that have legislated so far have

excluded a significant number of licences and leases from the

policy justification for this move. The Personal Property

Securities Register provides a safe and easy method for

registering and dealing with securities over personal property.

Excluding licences and leases from the operation of PPS,

particularly in the absence of an alternate method of registering

the security, could be to the detriment of business people

trying to secure finance to support their business ventures.

Further the range of conditions over the transfer of licences to

be found in the various Acts will continue to apply to the

licences and their transfer to a third party even if the security is

registered on the PPS Register and has to be enforced by the

financier. The State’s requirements will not be affected and the

various licence authorities will still exercise their powers and

discretions in relation to transfers.

The Bill also makes a number of technical amendments to

Tasmanian legislation so that terminology used in the Acts is

consistent with the terminology used in relation to the new

Personal Property Securities system.

I commend the Bill to the House.