Associate Professor David Brown has authored a small business guide for the Government on recent complex legislation upon which he is an international expert, the Personal Property Securities Act 2009(Cth). This law established a national online register for security interests in personal property, replacing numerous State and Commonwealth registers and other aspects of the general law with a new system similar to that in place in New Zealand and Canada, where David has worked.

Working with a ‘plain English’ editor and consulting focus groups of affected stakeholders, as well as a team at the Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA), David says that the challenge has been to present complex legislation in a ‘user-friendly’ way that will inform and alert a non-legal audience of SME operators, their accountants and other advisors, whilst still maintaining legal accuracy.

To view the AFSA Media Release, see https://www.afsa.gov.au/resources/media-kit/media-archive/media-release-afsa-launches-new-ppsr-guide-for-business.