Conveyancing back on the pollies' agenda

Chris Merrit, The Australian 15 Feb

THE federal Government is taking direct action aimed at reinvigorating the push for a single national electronic conveyancing system.

The Government believes the project is one of the key initiatives that could help reduce the cost of housing.

It is also seen as a way in which the Government could implement its goal of cutting red tape and increasing federal-state co-operation.

One of the top officials in the Attorney-General's Department, assistant secretary Richard Glenn, will be chairing a crucial meeting in Canberra today of the conveyancing industry's key players.

Mr Glenn has been heavily involved in an inter-governmental project aimed at establishing a national register for personal property securities.

Today's meeting will be attended by representatives of most state law societies, non-lawyer conveyancers, federal Treasury, the major banks and Australian Government Information Management Office.

It is aimed at forming a national project team to build the national system.

That team could help to eliminate the focus on inter-governmental rivalry that has slowed progress on the project.

A successful outcome from today's meeting is expected to help ease some of the concerns that are behind the boycott by the major banks of Victoria's state-based system.

The big banks have withdrawn their support from the Victorian system because they want to deal with one national system instead of a series of state-based systems.

As well as chairing today's meeting, the Attorney-General's Department has joined the steering committee that is overseeing the development of the national e-conveyancing system. Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland said progress on establishing a national system had stalled under the Howard government.

He will be raising the issue with his state and territory counterparts when they meet next month.

The Government is also examining the option of including electronic conveyancing on the agenda for the Council of Australian Governments.

The COAG business regulation and competition working group will consider the push for a national system at its meeting this month.

Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner said the Government had asked the states and territories to consider "whether a national system could be placed on the COAG agenda with an agreed implementation timeline".

"A national electronic conveyancing system is an example of harnessing technology to reduce the costs of doing business," he said.

The proposed national system is not intended to replace the land registries that are run by state and territory governments.

Instead, it would enable parties involved in property transactions to deal electronically through a single national portal.

The Australian Bankers Association endorsed the proposed establishment of a national project team.

ABA director Ian Gilbert said the intention was to assemble a team with the technical know-how to take the national electronic conveyancing project to the next stage.