Page 1029 - Week 04 - Thursday, 7 May 2020
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Law (ACT) Bill applies the electronic conveyancing national law, with some amendments to reflect the needs of the ACT. The Land Titles (Electronic Conveyancing) Legislation Amendment Bill 2020 will modernise ACT land titling laws so that they are less paper based.
The bill removes the requirement for the certificate of title to be handed over between parties in a transaction and replaces it with a stronger security measure requiring verification of identity and a party’s authority to deal with land. In turn, this provides scope for the ACT to use and apply the national framework for electronic conveyancing. Madam Speaker, I present the following papers:
Electronic Conveyancing—
ACT Operating Requirements.
ACT Participation Rules.
Revised explanatory statement to the Bill.
Registrar-General’s Rules—
Verification of Authority.
Verification of Identity.
The associated rules adopt and apply the nationally agreed model rules for electronic lodgement network operators, or ELNOs—another acronym that we will become familiar with—and subscribers to the ELNOs, being lawyers and mortgagee banks. I have also tabled the associated rules for in-person settlements under the Land Titles (Electronic Conveyancing) Legislation Amendment Bill 2020, which are the verification of identity rules and the verification of authority rules. I note that the verification of identity and the verification of authority rules have been amended to recognise how practitioners and their clients can adapt in the current COVID-19 environment for in-person settlements.
I would like to thank the Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety, in their legislative scrutiny role, for their reports on the two bills. The reports included advice that we could improve the explanatory material in relation to clause 25 of the conveyancing national law bill, which we have taken up.
One of the issues that was raised by the committee in report 41 was whether the Assembly will be able to debate future changes to the e-conveyancing national law before they are automatically adopted in the ACT. I want to note for the Assembly the process for how such amendments would take place, by way of context. The ACT government would have voted on the proposed amendment to the e-conveyancing national law at a policy design stage. Further, the amending bills to the national law must be in a form that is agreed by the states and territories as giving effect to the proposed changes before it is introduced into the New South Wales parliament. Once passed by the New South Wales parliament, it will be part of the conveyancing national law which the states and territories have agreed to implement.
Given those circumstances, the government will table the changes in the law but will not automatically seek a debate in the Assembly on those changes. In doing that, we
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