Murray Thompson MP - Hansard

Mr THOMPSON (Sandringham) — The annual statement of government intentions of the Brumby government is entitled Delivering for Victoria, but there are a number of key areas where there has been no delivery. One key example would be the proposed conveyancing reform system of Victoria.

Victoria has spent some $40 million on a system that cannot be used. It was warned four years ago by a number of stakeholders that if the project proceeded, it would not be able to be used. Since its launch last November not one settlement has taken place under the guise of this new system, but it is costing Victorian consumers many thousands of dollars per day as a result of the government’s failure to actually have the system enacted; people are still reliant on a paper-based system.

There has been widespread commentary on this issue. Rick Burbidge’s comment in the Australian was:

"The Victorian Government has forced the state’s home buyers to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra government fees because disputes have hobbled its $40 million electronic conveyancing system.

As a result, thousands of people who have bought and sold property since November have had no alternative but to use the old paper-based conveyancing system that has been hit by government fee increases of up to 32 per cent."

Those disputes, which have been dragging on since last year, have led to a boycott of the Electronic Conveyancing Victoria project by the major banks and most of the state’s solicitors. Yet the government has still failed over the last months to work through and broker a solution. It has failed for four years to properly reconcile the interests of all stakeholders in the development of a key national system. The notion that the Brumby government is delivering for Victoria fails at the first jump.