Chris Merritt, Legal affairs editor | July 04, 2008
VICTORIA may be in line for a multi-million-dollar payout as part of the push to clear the impediments that have delayed the establishment of a national electronic conveyancing system.
Attorney-General Robert McClelland said it was "inevitable" that Victoria would be compensated for spending millions of dollars building a state-based e-conveyancing system.The prospect of a payout strengthened yesterday when the Council of Australian Governments agreed that by 2010 all property transactions in the nation would be settled using "a single national electronic conveyancing system".
While this puts Victoria's state-based system at risk of being superseded by the national system, Mr McClelland said much of the Victorian system could still be useful.
"People have different views about whether the Victorian system works or won't work, but ... we should recognise that in some ways they were trailblazers in the area," Mr McClelland said.
He said the way forward on e-conveyancing would mean a new corporation would run the national system and would pay a fair price for Victoria's technology and use "that part of it that is useful".
COAG agreed that a new organisation to develop the national system should "assess the Victorian electronic conveyancing system ECV and, to the extent it is suitable, use it as the basis for the underlying software for the new national e-conveyancing system".
Victorian Minister for Innovation Gavin Jennings said this meant COAG had "accepted the Victorian model".
"COAG today accepted the Victorian model which has been developed over recent years. The model will now be assessed by a COAG committee," Mr Jennings said.
"Home buyers across Australia will benefit from this world-first Victorian innovation through time savings and ultimately financial savings," he said.
However, the state Opposition described the Victorian system as "a lemon" that had cost $40 million to develop, been used for just one transaction and had contributed to a $6 million increase in state government charges on conveyancing.
Opposition frontbencher David Davis said he would always argue in favour of additional money for Victoria.
But the prospect of compensating the state Government for ECV "sets a very bad precedent when mendicant states with hare-brained or poorly implemented schemes will be compensated for their incompetence", Mr Davis said.
"The Victorian scheme is a lemon and federal taxpayers' money will be used to salve the wounds in Victoria," he said.
COAG agreed that the new national system would be run by a new "entity" that would be owned by "all relevant jurisdictions".
However, no decision has yet been taken on whether the federal Government will have an equity stake in the new organisation.
COAG also agreed on a time line for the introduction of the new national system.
The new entity's governance and funding are due to be be settled by October. It will be established in December and any new laws will be introduced by December next year, with the system due to come into effect in March 2010.
If it works as planned, industry groups estimate it could reduce the cost of buying and selling property by $250 million a year.