The Government has introduced the Personal Property Securities Amendment (Registration Commencement) Bill 2011 into Parliament.

UPDATE 25 November 2011: The Bill has been passed by both Houses.

If passed, the definition of “registration commencement time” will be amended so that the Attorney-General may determine any time other than 1 February 2012 as currently fixed by section 306 of the PPS Act.

Without the amendment, the Attorney-General could determine an earlier time for the registration commencement time. However, the Attorney-General could not determine a later time.

The amendment ensures that the relevant provisions will not automatically commence before the national online PPS register is ready to be made available for public use.

Any decision by the Attorney-General under the proposed amendments to determine the registration commencement time to be a date after 1 February 2012 would need to be made before that date is reached.