Articles by Nicola Berkovic

Problems with a new government register have impacted on cashflow in an already hard time. Difficulties with the Personal Property Security Register have left some businesses, already facing tough retail conditions, with severe cashflow problems. The national register, which is the responsibility of federal Attorney-General Nicola Roxon, was rolled out on January 30. It is an online register of all personal property items, including cars and equipment, that have security interests -- such as a car loan -- registered against them. It was trumpeted by the government as a way to cut business red tape. However, the new system has been plagued by technical problems. Many car dealers say encumbrances are not being lifted off items listed on the register in a timely way. This means dealers have been unable to sell used cars even when debts to financiers have been settled. Motor Traders of NSW chief executive James McCall said the problem was causing hardship for many dealers around the country and it had been handled atrociously by the government. He urged Ms Roxon to devote proper resources to fixing it as soon as possible. "The government can't manage a cold day in Antarctica," he said. Mercedes-Benz Sydney dealer principal Paul Betar said for every day his dealership was stuck with a vehicle it could not sell, it cost the business money. "Whatever the cost of the vehicle, we're paying 7 per cent interest on that," he said. "Every day it's costing you money while it sits there, not to mention the cashflow implications." He said the dealership was having to tell some customers it could not complete a trade-in because it could not gain clear title to a vehicle. He said his dealership completed about 150 transactions a month, and half of those involved trade-ins. Mr Betar said the effects flowed throughout the car industry to finance companies, workshops that reconditioned vehicles, detailers who cleaned vehicles, wholesalers that relied on new stock and even the state government, which collected stamp duty. A spokeswoman for the Attorney-General's Department said strong initial demand for the register had affected its performance. However, she said the system was now working well and teething problems had been ironed out. "Current projections show this backlog will be cleared within the next 24 hours," she said. The new national register replaced 23 commonwealth, state and territory registers. About 4.8 million registrations were transferred from the state-based registers to the new federal system.