Key developments
- Winding down Australia’s cheques system
- A New Aged Care Act: Exposure Draft
- A 2023-2030 Australian Cyber Security Strategy: Legislative Reforms
- 2024 National Pro Bono Target Review
Winding down Australia’s cheques system
The Property Law, Litigation Law and Practice, Rural Issues, Business Law, and Elder Law, Capacity and Succession Committees, as well as the Trust Account Department, contributed to a submission to the Law Council regarding the Commonwealth Treasury’s consultation paper, Winding down Australia’s cheques system. Our response broadly focused on the prevalence of cheque usage by older members of the community, some potential issues with the phasing out of cheques and common legal settings in which cheques are currently used.
In relation to legal settings, we noted the various settings where cheques are used by lawyers to complete transactions or effect payments, including commercial transactions without a transfer of land component, and the provision of conduct money when serving subpoenas on third parties. The phasing out of cheques will require adaptation to new procedures and processes, and some settings will be more challenging than others. Property transactions completed outside of electronic conveyancing will need further consideration and consultation, particularly those transactions involving the release of security by the vendor’s outgoing bank and the taking of security by a purchaser’s incoming bank.
