Go-ahead

The state of Victoria will be compensated for many of the costs incurred in the development of its state based system as the technology which it developed could still be useful. This follows the recent decision by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) to have "a single national electronic conveyancing system" by 2010. COAG has agreed that the new organisation which will be developing the national system will "assess the Victorian electronic conveyancing system ECV and, to the extent it is suitable, use it as the basis for the underlying software for the new national e-conveyancing system".

An opposition frontbencher said that the prospect of compensating the state Government for ECV "sets a very bad precedent when mendicant states with hare-brained or poorly implemented schemes will be compensated for their incompetence".

Article on The Australian