The Attorney-General's Department has released the first of a series of consultation papers in relation to the review of the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth) (PPSA) for public comment.

The PPSA is currently subject to a review process following a call for submissions by the Attorney General in April 2014. In an interim report dated 31 July 2014 prepared as part of the review process, it was proposed that a series of consultation papers be prepared to discuss potential areas for reform of the PPSA based on the submissions received from interested parties.

First Consultation Paper

The purpose of this consultation paper is to consider the reach of the PPSA by looking at the types of legal relationships to which the PPSA should apply, the types of property to which the PPSA should apply and what exemptions might be desirable. Some examples of issues covered by the paper are:

  • the definition of "security interest" and whether it requires a proprietary interest in personal property;
  • whether and to what extent leases of personal property should give rise to security interests under the PPSA;
  • the definition of "account" and whether outright legal transfers of accounts should give rise to security interests; and
  • the concept of "chattel paper", the history of its inclusion in the PPSA, and whether the concept should be retained or completely removed.

Interested parties are called to comment on the specific proposals made in the first consultation paper by no later than 3 November 2014. A template to use when providing comments is available from the Attorney General's PPSA review webpage.

Next steps

Three further consultation papers are scheduled for release in October 2014. The additional papers will cover:

  • the creation and perfection of security interests, dealings in collateral, priority and the take free rules;
  • enforcement of security interests, particular types of collateral, interaction with other legislation and miscellaneous provisions; and
  • the PPS register.

A final report in relation to the review of the PPSA, with recommendations on how to improve the Act, will be published at the end of January 2015.

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