Page 2224 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 6 June 1990
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operational. The Bill, however, will not place a legal requirement on the financier to register an interest in a vehicle, but I have no doubt that any financier faced with the responsibility of losing the vehicle will register that interest.
Limited protection is already provided to consumers who purchase a vehicle from a registered motor dealer. The Sale of Motor Vehicles Act currently requires a dealer who acquires such a vehicle to have that encumbrance removed before the vehicle is sold. The financier still retains the right, however, to repossess a vehicle in which he retains an interest, the purchaser's rights in such cases being limited to compensation. This Bill will reinforce the existing provisions in the Sale of Motor Vehicles Act by permitting title to pass to a purchaser who buys an encumbered vehicle from a registered dealer, whether or not the dealer has notice of that interest. A purchaser will therefore not be required to search the register when buying from a registered dealer.
In conclusion, this Bill introduces a registration scheme which is both economical and simple to operate. The scheme will protect the consumer's and the financier's legitimate interests in providing a register which is readily accessible. The scheme has already received unanimous acceptance from consumers and industry bodies, and for that reason is unique amongst consumer legislation. I commend the Bill to the Assembly.
MR HUMPHRIES (Minister for Health, Education and the Arts) (5.31): Mr Speaker, I want to comment on the Bill, if only for certain sentimental reasons. I was for a period of nearly a year an officer in what is now Mr Collaery's Government Law Office, and I had the pleasure at that time of preparing the drafting instructions for this very Bill. It is extraordinary that, some two years later, I come back as a member of the Assembly and find myself receiving the ball as it rolls through at the other end. However, that is not, I have come to realise, atypical of the way in which government works.
I want to make only one brief point, with reference to a comment by Mr Connolly on the issuing of certificates to people in the ACT. It is true that people in the ACT will have to wait some while for their certificates to become available and they will not have the same opportunity as people in Sydney, for example, to travel to a place where that certificate is issued and receive a certificate as proof of the good title they can obtain in the vehicle. However, it should be borne in mind that it is not necessary to obtain a certificate in order to attract the arrangements - the protection of the Bill - that ensure a purchaser obtains good title. It is only necessary that the prospective purchaser ring the appropriate bureau, have his or her call logged and obtain confirmation that there is good title to be obtained because no encumbrance exists on that particular vehicle. That person then is fully
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