Thursday, 23 February 2023

Electronic land transfers

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (17:35): (64) My adjournment tonight is for the attention of the Minister for Planning, and it concerns the decision by the government, presumably with the minister’s knowledge – the Minister for Planning in this case, and possibly the Treasurer, but this is directed to the Minister for Planning – and the decision of the titles office to abolish paper titles and to not provide people with paper titles for their land, for their homes and for their businesses. I think this is a very serious matter. I am all in favour of more electronic activity, but we know the weaknesses of electronic systems. We have seen hacking into systems in recent times. We have seen foreign authorities and others digging into government data sources and so forth. And given the importance of people’s homes to them, I think where you have got a $1 million home – let us pick a number not far from the median price of houses in Melbourne – or even a $600,000 or $800,000 home, it is the major asset for that family. I think they are entitled to have a paper title, and to keep that paper title in a safe place, where they are assured that that paper title will remain intact.

The idea that hacking or tampering could occur with the title and that the only source of the title would be an electronic version held in some central repository in the city is, I think, concerning. What the Minister for Planning needs to do is instruct the titles office not to proceed with this approach. I think it is outrageous. I think it is retrograde, and I think people are entitled to have clarity of title and to have that paper title kept in their bank’s vault, in their safekeeping or at their solicitor’s office or other source where they are able to feel assured that it is not able to be tampered with. It will be, in the final analysis, the final record if some destruction occurs of an electronic repository. The titles office is a very important body, with surveying and all the work that they do – I am not in any way denigrating them. At the time we were cautious, and the Environment and Planning Committee in a previous Parliament had an inquiry looking at the commercialisation of the titles office. We were not opposed to that in principle, but we saw really significant risks, and there needed to be checks and balances. This is one of those occasions where it is hard not to believe that the commercialisation is linked with this decision to move to electronic-only titles. It gives a monopoly control to the titles office. It means there is no other repository that can ever question their information and their data, so please intervene and say no.