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ACCESS in ACTION
NOVEMBER 2016
VOL18 NO 2
6,953 (Audit
period Sept 2015)
CAB Member
since March 2010
ELEVATING WORK PLATFORM ASSOCIATION OF
AUSTRALIA INC ABN 32 545 830 419
EWPA
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President: Rick Mustillo
Tel: 02 9817 7610
Vice President: Mitch Ely
Tel: 07 3456 4508
Past President: Tim Nuttall
Tel: 03 9547 7700
Chief Executive Officer: James Oxenham
Tel: 0410 704 979
Operations Manager: Nicolas Chiew
Tel: 0410 468 468
NSW President: John Glover
Tel: 02 9735 7600
VIC President: Tim Hille
Tel: 03 9555 1116
QLD President: Richard Gannon
Tel: 07 3277 7255
SA President: Ben Pritchard
Tel: 08 8262 1000
WA President: Will Reilly
Tel: 08 9456 4400
TRAINING DIRECTOR
Phil Middleton
Tel: 02 9622 6060
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
Peter Wenn
Tel: 03 9568 7211
TELESCOPIC HANDLER ASSOCIATION OF
AUSTRALIA (TSHA)
PRESIDENT: Chris Taylor
Tel: 02 9609 4653
EWPA & TSHA
PO Box 1304, Mona
Vale NSW 1660
Tel: 02 9998 2222
Fax: 02 9998 2299
Email: info@ewpa.com.au Web: www.ewpa.com.au
Opinions published in the Hire and Rental Industry
Association magazine – Hire and Rental News – do
not necessarily reflect the opinions of the association
or the Editor. The HRIA accepts no responsibility for
the accuracy of any information contained in this
magazine and readers should rely upon their own
enquiries in making decisions related to their own
interest.
The contents of this publication are subject to
copyright and cannot be reproduced in any way or
form without written consent from the Editor.
All rights reserved. ISSN 1838-1197
COMMITTEE
Dean Halliwell
Tel: 02 9623 3329
Bob Mules
Tel: 02 8718 6300
Peter Davis
Tel: 02 8796 5055
Doug Rawlings
Tel: 08 9350 5700
Keith Clarke
Tel: 03 9792 1000
The mind numbing reality that is the PPSA
30
ACCESS IN ACTION • NOVEMBER 2016
The PPSA is the most
complicated piece of
legislation since Federation.
The latest position for the
associations (HRIA and
EWPA) is we’ve got the
attention of the Attorney
General’s Department.
Staff members of the
Department visited two rental
companies in Victoria to help
them better understand the
problems the PPSA brings to
the hire industry.
“We’ve put a submission
to the Attorney General on
the back of the Whittaker
Report. The Whittaker Report
(a review of the Personal
Property Securities Act 2009
by Bruce Whittaker, tabled
before Parliament on 18
March 2015) considers the
effects of the legislation
on the hire industry and
recommended removing
indefinite hire from the Act.
This recommendation is good,
but Whittaker left in a one
year threshold which means
any hire that runs longer than
a year is still affected by the
legislation.
“To put it in layman’s terms,
the current legislation means
if you hire a machine for
one day, or one week or one
month or longer, you need to
secure your asset on the PPSR
(Personal Property Security
Register) before it leaves your
hire yard.
The Whittaker Report has
made great strides for the
hire industry, but, it is still
only a report to date nothing
has changed. It has not been
enacted in legislation yet and
the hire industry is still at risk.
The Repeal Day Legislative
changes and Whittaker leaves
the threshold at one year –
which is fine for smaller hire
companies, but for bigger
hire companies and those
who have equipment going
out for longer terms, the
risk is high. Whittaker also
addressed rehire but he had
no solution. Most rehires do
not run for longer than a year
so if indefinite hire is removed,
re-hire could be ok.
There is a recent example of
how catastrophic the PPSA
can be when things go wrong.
A hire company hired a 60
tonne forklift (original cost
$215,000) to a customer.
They registered on the PPSR.
They changed it over for
maintenance. They thought
they had 15 days to register
the change-over (this is not
the case).Their customer
went into administration and
the forklift has been lost to
the administrator. It is hard
to believe we have a law that
extinguishes title to assets.
Even if you try and do the
right thing, a simple clerical
mistake can result in assets
being seized. To have that
sort of legislation in place in
Australia is mind numbing.
The HRIA and EWPA
approached the Australian
Banking Association to talk
about changes we felt needed
to be made to make it fairer
for our industry. Our proposal
is to remove indefinite hire
and extend the threshold to
three years, so ordinary hires
don’t need to be registered
on the PPSR and remove a
section in the Corporations
Act that can catch companies
out. By making it a three
year threshold, anything over
that would be considered
a security interest but this
resolves most of our problems.
There is a strong argument
general hire, ie: ordinary every
day hire, is not a security
interest and shouldn’t be
included in the PPS Act.
The Banks were slow in
coming back to us and said
they weren’t that keen on the
PPSA themselves but they
won’t take action for change.
The whole intent of the PPSA
was to make getting finance
easier. The PPSA has had
the opposite effect. It took
a little while for the banks
and financiers to realise but
the PPSA creates a whole
new level of risk for hire
companies. It has become
much more complex and the
risk level is making financiers
very anxious.
We think the Attorney
General’s office is currently
rewriting the Act to remove
indefinite hire and remove
the Corporations Act. We
also have an agreement with
the Banking Association to
remove indefinite hire up to
two years; this will cover up
to 98% of hire contracts and
effectively take the general
hire industry out of the PPSA
loop. It would be better if it
was three years.
Finally I would like to
acknowledge one of the
key players in our struggle
to get our predicament
heard in the right places. A
Queensland Senator, John
(Wacker) Williams has been
instrumental in assisting
our plight. We applaud the
assistance and guidance
we have received from him
through the legislative and
parliamentary process. I
would also like to recognise
the contribution of Gary
Kerr for his unwavering
commitment as well and
James Oxenham (HRIA CEO)
and Oliver Shtein of Bartier
Perry for their continued
support and advice. For now,
we all need to remain vigilant;
get Master Agreements in
place and/or register our
equipment on the PPSR
correctly. Remember: one little
clerical error can still see our
equipment gone.
Tim Nuttall, owner of Access Hire in Victoria and Past President of the EWPA, has been
working away behind the scenes for years now to help correct the legal imbalances
of the PPSA – a piece of legislation enacted by our government that allows privately
owned assets to be seized by administrators and liquidators. And the entire hire
industry is at risk. The biggest issue is in convincing our members this could actually
happen to them – that someone can steal your equipment even though you can prove
you are the legal owner of that equipment.