Page 1275 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 March 2013
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ACAT for a review of the decision. The new process applies to unclaimed assets in the hands of a liquidator; money owing by a company to someone, for example superannuation; money owing to someone under the Agents Act 2003; or unclaimed trust money under the Legal Profession Act 2006.
Changes to the Unit Titles (Management) Act 2011 provide flexibility such that annual sinking fund contributions do not have to equal the exact amount of annual sinking fund expenditure, which is required to be planned at least for a rolling 10-year period. For example, lumpy expenditure plans can be managed through even contributions. These provisions were amended just last year, but I understand from the briefing taken by my office that further clarification is needed.
In summary, we will be supporting the bill.
MS BURCH (Brindabella—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Disability, Children and Young People, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Women, Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Minister for Racing and Gaming) (4.21): The bill which we are debating today contains a number of minor and uncontroversial amendments to laws within the Justice and Community Safety portfolio. This bill makes a number of improvements to the ACT statute book, some of which will remove unnecessary red tape.
As the Attorney-General mentioned on the introduction of the bill, a number of amendments are proposed to the unclaimed moneys provisions in the Unclaimed Money Act 1950, the Legal Profession Act 2006 and the Agents Act 2003. These amendments are designed to ensure consistency between these acts about how unclaimed money is to be paid by the Public Trustee to a person to whom the money belongs. The amendments also remove any ambiguity about the process in each act for the person seeking to have his or her unclaimed money returned. The amendments also give legislative recognition to the practice used by the Public Trustee when paying unclaimed money to claimants who can prove that they are entitled to that money, and allow people claiming money to have decisions of the Public Trustee in relation to their claims renewed.
This bill substitutes existing part 5 of the Unclaimed Money Act with a new part 5 which sets out the process involved in applying for unclaimed money and decision making relating to the application. Existing part 5 provides for unclaimed superannuation money. The unclaimed superannuation money is now paid to and administered by the commonwealth, and all unclaimed superannuation money previously held by the Public Trustee can be paid to the commonwealth Commissioner of Taxation, under existing part 5.
The bill rewords existing section 124 of the Land Titles Act 1925. That section prohibits the Registrar-General from making any entry on the register of any notice of trusts. It is an important prohibition as it ensures the certainty of the land titles register. The Shopping Centre Council and the ACT Law Society have raised a concern with the current wording of 124 as it may have the unintended effect of preventing registration of certain commercial leases. It is common in modern commercial
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