Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

There have been some interesting contributions and great recognition of the ongoing work of the coalition in the area of deregulation. The Personal Property Securities Amendment (Deregulatory Measures) Bill 2014 will simplify the operation of the Personal Property Securities Act and minimise costs and confusion for business, particularly for small businesses in the equipment-hire industry. These reforms have come about through meaningful and effective consultation with the hire industry and that is why I am so pleased to be supporting these matters with other colleagues in this House.

I should add, before commending the bill to the House, that mention was made of the statutory review of the act—a timely review. That timely review has recently been completed, led by Bruce Whittaker. Some good work has been done there, and the government is considering that review because—for small businesses in particular who have been listening to this discussion—the questions that arise around the equipment-hire industry are very important and action is being taken.

But there are other examples of the level of awareness and understanding of the way in which the Personal Property Securities Register system acts. What kind of assets need to be registered? What is involved in deregistering them when that is appropriate? And where there is a need to vary those registrations—for instance, if it is scaffolding for a building and you have made registered 150 metres of scaffolding materials only to find you need 160 metres—those variations can be quite complex. Those are some of the reasons why that important statutory review will be something the government considers carefully. In summing up, I commend the bill to the House and thank my colleagues for their contribution to the debate.

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