Mr KEENAN (7:03 PM) —I rise to talk on the Electronic Transactions Amendment Bill 2011. The coalition supports the purpose of this bill, which is to update the Electronic Transactions Act 1999 to align the legislation with the relevant UN convention of 2005. As explained in the Bills Digest, the bill updates Australia’s electronic transactions legislation to reflect the internationally recognised standards on electronic commerce set out in the convention, thereby giving greater certainty to international trade and commerce.

The Electronic Transactions Act 1999 implements the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law Model Law on Electronic Commerce of 1996. The intention of the model is to provide a more secure environment for electronic commerce to remove legal obstacles to its acceptance. The principal effect of this act is to provide that transactions will not be invalid merely because they have been completed electronically. Giving information in writing, providing a handwritten signature, producing a document in material form and recording or retaining information may all be done electronically.

The 2005 convention seeks to build on the model law in light of the practical experience of the past 15 years, in particular with respect to issues relating to the formation and performance of contracts between parties in different countries. However, it makes no substantive changes to contract law.

Exceptions to this regime include negotiable instruments and documents of title where there is a risk of unauthorised duplication. Complex transactions will remain subject to their own regulatory and contract rules. The regulations will provide for documents such as passports and statutory declarations to be only in paper based form.

The bill was drafted by the Parliamentary Counsel’s Committee and was approved by the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General in May 2010. The parliaments of New South Wales and Tasmania have already passed the amendments, with the remaining parliaments expected to do so by the middle of this year.

The bill applies the changes proposed by the convention in respect of international contracts. It provides default rules for determining the time of dispatch and receipt and electronic communication for the purposes of formation and performance of a contract. It also clarifies the traditional contractual rules on formation in the context of electronic commerce to recognise automated message systems, clarification of any invitation to treat, determining the location of parties and updating the electronic signature provisions.

The convention rules exclude personal, domestic or household contracts from its regime. However, the bill does not make such an exclusion. The reason for this is that the act does not override the consumer protection provisions of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010, formerly the Trade Practices Act 1974. The public consultation process called for submissions on this issue but received none. This is probably not surprising, because the bill makes no substantive changes to contractual rules or remedies.

It should be noted that nothing in the convention or the bill affects the principle that contracting parties should be free to agree on matters affecting the formation and performance of a contract between them. Parties contracting in different countries may agree on a law which is to apply to their dealings. The convention rules only apply where the relevant law validly chosen by the parties or otherwise deemed to apply is that of a contracting state.

The coalition supports the Electronic Transactions Amendment Bill 2011 and I therefore commend the bill to the House.