Finlayson ChristopherHon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (Attorney-General): I thank Mr O'Rourke for those very helpful comments and would respond to his first Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 325 by saying I think it is probably outside the scope of the bill. This legislation is very technical legislation on the hows and whys and the means by which one registers an interest in land and so on. It states the fundamental principles about indefeasibility of title. A register of foreign landowners addresses a slightly different point. I hear what the member is saying. Maybe there should be some sui generis legislation but that can be the subject of a separate debate. It is my belief that what the member is proposing in that SOP is outside the scope of the bill. I just need to give a bit more thought to the second of his SOPs SOP 313 so that I can give him a reasonably coherent answer rather than waffle so I will come back to that. If I can talk to his third SOP SOP 314 about whether those clauses 54 and 55 should be reinstated I think he very accurately summarised the reasons that were advanced as to why the clauses were deleted. First he talked about the issue of costs and he said that he did not think that the costs would be insurmountable. He may well be right but the fact of the matter is that those costs of compliance would as sure as anything be passed on to the consumer because I would not think that the banking institutions would carry them themselves. Then the issue arises about whether that expense is justifiable given the low level of mortgage fraud in the country.The second point I would raise and I think this is a more powerful point is that existing identity verification requirements appear to be robust. The legislation currently requires both lawyers and conveyancers all 30 of them to take reasonable steps to confirm the identity of a person who has given them authority to lodge a transfer instrument on their behalf. The requirement to verify identity for a transaction relating to land also arises in other circumstances. One that I am very familiar with is the protection provided for in the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 which places an obligation on entities to verify a person's identity. I also refer Mr O'Rourke to Part 2 of the Financial Transactions Reporting Act 1996.Denis O'Rourke: So it won't increase costs then because they have to do it anyway.Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: I hear what the member is saying and we obviously would not want to have a contentious debate on clauses 54 and 55. The view of the department and the Minister for Land Information is that although the risk appears to be currently low there will be monitoring to ensure that should the situation change it can be addressed speedily allowing the clauses to be reinstated should they need to be.Denis O'Rourke: Do it now.Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: It may not satisfy the honourable member but I hope that that answers the position of the Government in relation to the first and third of his SOPs. I think it has picked up the point raised by Mr Huo who will correct me if I am wrong and then I will come back to Mr O'Rourke's second point when I figure out what to say.