CROWN LANDS AMENDMENT BILL 2000 Second Reading Speech

Northern Territory Second Reading Speeches

CROWN LANDS AMENDMENT BILL 2000

(This an uncorrected proof of the daily report. It is made available under the condition that it is recognised as such.)

Mr Speaker, I move that the bills be now read a second time.

The main purpose of these Bills is to make consequential amendments to the many Acts, Regulations and Rules of Court that are affected by the Law of Property Act 2000 and the Land Title Act 2000 as enacted during the February 2000 sittings of the Legislative Assembly.

Mr Speaker, these consequential amendments reflect the repeal of the Real Property Act and the consolidation in the Law of Property Act 2000 of many provisions that had previously been contained in various other Acts. The Bills also contain statute law and remedial amendments. I will briefly describe the more significant of these amendments.

Firstly, the Law of Property (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2000 amends the Trustee Act so as to remove restrictions on the power of certain trustees to make prudent decisions concerning the insurance of buildings.

Mr Speaker, it has been the usual practice in other jurisdictions to conduct a thorough review of trustee legislation at the time when modern property law legislation is enacted. This is what happened in South Australia in 1936 and in Queensland in the early 1970s. This has not occurred in the Northern Territory because we are awaiting the outcomes of a proposal that there be nationally uniform trustee legislation. This is a project that is unlikely to bear fruit for some time.

In the meantime, opportunities will be taken to make ad hoc reforms to the Trustee Act. This is an Act originally enacted in 1893 in South Australia. Section 18(1) limits certain trustees from using trust income to insure for more than 75% of the value of buildings on land. Such a prescriptive restriction is inconsistent with the general principle enshrined in the Act following the Trustee Amendment Act (No 2) 1995. That general principle is that trustees need to exercise prudence in making decisions about trust property, trust income and trust investments. They are required to make decisions having regard to all of the facts rather than bound by prescriptive rules set out in legislation. This reform follows amendments made to the South Australian Act.

Secondly, the Law of Property (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2000 amends the Trustee Act so as to provide for settled land to be treated as though it is land held in trust.

Thirdly, the Land Title (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2000 provides for the re-naming of the Crown Lands Amendment (No 3) 1980 Act. This is the Act that provided in 1980 for the freeholding of most town land that had been held as leasehold. As this Act contains provisions that continue to apply to all of the freeholded land, it was not repealed and re-enacted at the time of the consolidation of the Crown Lands Act in 1992. Additionally, the Act may have some remnant operation concerning some land that has not yet been converted to freehold by the Minister or been the subject of the issue of freehold titles by the Registrar-General. These amendments now provide for the removal of obsolete provisions and for the renaming of the Act as the Crown Lands Freehold (Conversion from Crown Leasehold) Act 1980. These amendments could have been made by simply amending cross references in the 1980 Act. However, based on advice from Parliamentary Counsel, the approach taken is one that will make the 1980 Act more accessible and easier to understand.

Fourthly, the Land Title (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2000 provides that the Bill is to prevail over the Law of Property Act 2000 to the extent of any inconsistency between the two Acts. Similar amendments are to be made to the mining legislation so that it is clear that specific mining provisions are to prevail over inconsistent provisions in the Law of Property Act 2000.

Fifthly, the Land Title Act 2000 is amended so as to remove some uncertainties concerning its relationship with the Powers of Attorney Act. The Powers of Attorney Act will contain all provisions which deal with the effect of powers of attorney whilst the Land Title Act 2000 will only deal with registration issues.

I commend the Bills to Honourable Members.

[Index] [Search] [Bill] [Help]