Lecture and Webinar on the Statutory Review of the Australian Personal Property Security Act
This lecture, the third in the Commercial Law Centre series was given on 27th May 2015 by Associate Professor David Brown of the University of Adelaide. The session was chaired by Professor Hugh Beale, a senior research fellow at the Commercial Law Centre, and Professor Louise Gullifer, the Director of the Centre, commented.
The Australian PPSA came into force in 2012. Section 343 provided for a review after three years of operation, and this was carried out by Mr Bruce Whittaker of Ashursts, after considerable consultation based on an interim report and four consultation papers. In his lecture, Associate Professor David Brown set the review in context by discussing the reception of the Act in Australia, and then focused on those issues considered in it which would be of particular interest to an English audience. The review concluded that the Act had the potential to ‘unlock value for Australian businesses and consumers, by making it easier for them to use their assets as security and to access cost-effective finance', but that to reach this potential the Act had to be made simpler, and needed to be better understood by stakeholders in Australia. This lecture explained some of the simplifications and improvements recommended by the review, making comparisons with PPSA systems in other jurisdictions.
The lecture was the first webinar hosted by the Commercial Law Centre, which was sponsored by Norton Rose Fulbright. Many people from around the world logged in and watched the lecture in real time. Questions for discussion by the panel were emailed in from listeners from Hungary and the US, as well as the UK. A video recording of the webinar is available here, together with the slide presentation.