Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

This bill supplements the International Interests in Mobile Equipment (Cape Town Convention) Bill.

The purpose of the bill is to make minor changes to the Air Services Act 1995, the Civil Aviation Act 1988 and the Personal Property Securities Act 2009.

These changes are necessary to help facilitate Australia's accession to the Cape Town convention and protocol.

The Air Services Act 1995 provides for unpaid service charges from Airservices Australia to be recorded as a statutory lien against an aircraft.

These statutory liens have priority over a claim registered with Australia's Personal Property Security Register if the statutory lien was recorded first.

The statutory lien also has priority over any other claims over the aircraft.

The proposed changes to the Air Services Act 1995 preserve this priority ranking system.

The statutory lien will have priority over interests registered under the Cape Town convention, provided that the statutory lien was recorded first.

That is, where a statutory lien has been recorded under the Air Services Act before a party registers its security interest under Cape Town convention's international registry, the statutory lien will have priority.

This approach is consistent with treatment of these charges under the current personal properties framework.

Amendments to the Civil Aviation Act 1988 will allow functions to be conferred on the Civil Aviation Safety Authority in relation to the operation of the Cape Town convention.

Specifically, CASA will be requested to record, remove and exercise irrevocable deregistration and export request authorisations, which is one of the remedies available under the Cape Town convention.

The IDERAs will ensure that an aircraft cannot legally be flown to another country to avoid recovery of the asset.

Lastly, the bill will include a provision in the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 to note that the Cape Town convention will prevail over the PPS Act to the extent that an inconsistency applies.

When the PPS Act was first established, it was intended as a 'one-stop shop' for the creation and enforcement of security interests in personal property.

By including a provision in the PPS Act, we're increasing transparency for holders of a security interest in an aircraft asset to let them know that the Cape Town convention exists and that it has primacy over the PPS Act.

I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.