Personal property securities (draft ) bill 2008 - problems and why it will not work

Attempts are under way to condense more than 70 pieces of federal, state and territory legislation on personal property securities (PPS) into a single Federal Act. The revised second draft of the PPS Bill 2008 was released in November calling for further public comments by December 2008. The aim of this article is to highlight some of the important instances where further intensive drafting is needed. It draws out some key issues that have not been addressed that may assist in further revising the bill. Overall, the author firmly believes that the bill is far from perfect, that much work is still needed to improve clarity and readability and to minimise any uncertainty in the use of certain terms that are repetitive and obsolete. The article concludes with some useful references that Australia could perhaps learn from the problems currently experienced in New Zealand under its own PPS Act.