Streamline WA: Landgate Regulatory Reform Priorities - Government of ...
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Streamline WA: Landgate Regulatory Reform Priorities
Contents
1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………2
2. Purpose ............................................................................................................................ 2
3. Background ....................................................................................................................... 2
4. Proposed projects ............................................................................................................. 3
4.1 Strata and Community Titles Reforms ...................................................................... 4
4.2 Electronic Conveyancing……………………………………………………………………8
4.3 Geocentric Datum of Australia 2020 ................................................................ .......14
4.4 Enabling red tape reduction through improved data sharing.…………………………16
5. Contact Details……………………………………………………………………………………18
landgate.wa.gov.au Page 1 of 181 Introduction Western Australian Land Information Authority is a statutory authority that operates under the business name of Landgate. As a statutory authority, Landgate is managed by a board, which is accountable to the Minister of Lands for the delivery of its services. Landgate is Western Australia’s trusted and respected source of location information, helping to inform important decision-making in Government, business and the community. Landgate’s role underpins the economic security and prosperity of the State and citizens of Western Australia. Landgate provides a range of accessible information including land titling that secures property rights, property valuations that support rating, taxing and the management of Government property assets, and location data that supports land titling, valuations and the management and development of Western Australia. 2 Purpose The submission has been prepared in response to the invitation received from the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS) together with the Department of Water and Environment Regulation (DWER) requesting Landgate’s key regulatory reform projects to be considered as part of the Streamline WA initiative. 3 Background Streamline WA is a state-wide initiative that was launched by the Western Australian Government in 2018. It focusses on bringing together government, business and industry to implement regulatory reform that seeks to reduce the barriers, costs and complexities of undertaking business. Landgate is frequently involved in a range of reforms to bring innovative solutions to the way in which it undertakes business in the key areas of land titles, valuation and land information. landgate.wa.gov.au Page 2 of 18
4 Proposed projects
The below listed projects are key regulatory reform priorities for Landgate. Landgate notes
that some of the proposed projects such as the Strata Titles and Community Titles Reforms
and Electronic Conveyancing are existing regulatory reform programs.
Landgate’s proposed priority projects for Streamline WA is:
4.1 Strata Titles and Community Titles Reforms
4.2 Electronic Conveyancing
4.3 Geocentric Datum of Australia 2020
4.4 Enabling red tape reduction through improved data sharing
landgate.wa.gov.au Page 3 of 184.1 Strata Titles and Community Titles Reforms
4.1.1 Project Overview
The Strata Titles Act Reform and the development of the Community Titles
legislation is a high priority project for Landgate, the Minister and the State. The
project consists of three main work streams supported by program
management activities, these streams being comprised of: (1) legislation and
regulations changes; (2) systems, approved forms and processes changes; and
(3) education and communication of changes. After five years of dedicated
effort and extensive stakeholder engagement and consultation, in June 2018,
the Strata Titles Amendment Bill 2018 and the Community Titles Bill 2018 were
introduced into Parliament. Both Bills successfully passed through Parliament,
with the Strata Titles Amendment Act 2018 (STAA) and the Community Titles
Act 2018 (CTA) receiving Royal Assent on 19 November 2018.
The Acts introduce two new forms of tenure, community titles and leasehold
strata titles, and include many additional reforms that improve and modernise
the creation and management of strata schemes. The continued success of the
project, as well as the successful implementation of the reforms requires the
strategic alignment of activities across Landgate; the Department of Planning,
Lands and Heritage; Office of State Revenue; and the State Administrative
Tribunal. Impacted government agencies will be required to process and
administer the three tenure types in a rapid, accurate and efficient manner,
which involves automating and streamlining systems and processes where
possible.
4.1.2 Regulatory Issue(s)
In recent decades, Western Australia has experienced sustained population
growth and all indicators suggest that this growth is set to continue. The
Australian Bureau of Statistics’ projections suggest that the State’s population
could increase from 2.5 million currently to at least 3.5 million, and possibly
more than double to 5.4 million by 2056.1 The changing population
demographic will impact on most aspects of the economy moving forward,
including the mix of dwelling types sought by residents.
1 State Planning Strategy (final draft October 2013), p. 18. Department of Planning.
landgate.wa.gov.au Page 4 of 18The urban sprawl along the coastline, makes Perth one of the longest cities in
the world, with over 130km from Mandurah to Two Rocks. This expansive area
means travel between destinations is increased, placing greater reliance on
road and transport networks. Plans to manage this are outlined in Directions
2031 and Beyond – Metropolitan Planning Beyond the Horizon (2011) and the
State Planning Strategy 2050, the State’s primary planning frameworks, and
will be brought into reality through initiatives like METRONET. The METRONET
project recognises the need for more affordable, flexible, liveable and mixed-
use developments as fundamental to helping address the challenges and to
meet the future needs of the State: more urban infill, increased housing density
and more community living. Strata developments, and the legislative framework
that underpins them, are key enablers to support this growth.
Prior to the passage of the STAA and CTA there had been no major reform to
Western Australia’s strata legislation for over 20 years. As such, the key
regulatory issue was the need for a more robust and modernised legislative
framework to support the increasing number of strata schemes in Western
Australia.
4.1.3 Addressing the Regulatory Issue(s)
Addressing this issue has been commenced through Landgate’s development
of strata reforms, which are aimed at delivering Western Australian strata
owners, residents, developers and managers with a clear, modern, transparent
and accountable legislative framework for creating and managing strata.
Landgate established five key objectives for the reform project, many of which
have successfully been achieved. The objectives include:
1. To introduce and pass the Strata Titles Amendment Bill 2018, Community
Titles Bill 2018 and its cognate Bill through Parliament by December 2018.
2. To implement new business processes to support changes and new tenure
types introduced by the new legislation. Landgate aims to complete
systems development and changes for this purpose by June 2019.
3. To progress drafting instructions for regulations to support the STAA and
CTA, and consult with internal and external stakeholders on the proposed
supporting regulations.
4. Prior to the Acts coming into force, to communicate key changes to
impacted stakeholders, through education and engagement so that the new
laws can be supported and used effectively.
landgate.wa.gov.au Page 5 of 185. To ensure alignment across government agencies and industry to deliver
and implement reforms as effectively and efficiently as possible.
4.1.4 Expected Outcomes and Benefits
The Strata and Community Titles reforms are expected to deliver a wide range
of benefits to the state, including:
• Delivering strata owners, residents, developers and managers a clear,
transparent and accountable framework for creating and managing strata in
Western Australia. For example, the reforms provide the ability for strata
companies to electronically undertake tasks such as providing information
and voting at meetings, which has the potential to transform the way in
which schemes are run and to encourage more owner participation in
decision making. Further, the reforms provide strata managers with
statutory duties and obligations to the strata company.
• The STAA and CTA will significantly improve upon existing strata
legislation, addressing problems experienced in strata, while also
modernising the language and structure of the Strata Titles Act 1985.
• Introduce two new forms of strata (leasehold strata titles and community
titles) which will enable greater diversity in land ownership and help deliver
more vibrant and liveable strata communities across the state. For example,
leasehold strata titles will assist in providing affordable housing, as well as
developing freehold land on strategic sites over which the government and
other persons wish to retain control in the long term. Additionally,
community titles schemes can for example, play an important part in
delivering vibrant communities, particularly in activity centres, urban
corridors and around station precincts. They can also provide a framework
for well planned, larger-scale land subdivision and development with shared
ownership of utility infrastructure, amenities and more cohesive mixed-use
development.
• Streamline and increase efficiency and expertise in dispute resolution of
strata by empowering the State Administrative Tribunal to be the agency
responsible for resolving the majority of strata disputes, shifting disputes
from the District Court and Supreme Court.
• Support the implementation of METRONET, helping to deliver station
precincts through the introduction of community titles and leasehold
schemes. This will enable the delivery of cohesive activity centres,
facilitating economic growth, local jobs and encouraging greater urban infill.
landgate.wa.gov.au Page 6 of 18• Assist to deliver Western Australia’s suburbs of the future, providing people
with more options as to where they wish to live.
• Create a greater diversity of housing and better integration of land and
building uses, which in turn will help ensure suburbs cater for all people
throughout their changing needs and life stages.
• The reforms will help deliver Western Australia’s suburbs of the future,
providing people with more options as to where they wish to live.
landgate.wa.gov.au Page 7 of 184.2 Electronic Conveyancing
4.2.1 Project Overview
In 2008, Electronic Conveyancing (eConveyancing) reforms emerged through
the Council of Australian Government (COAG) agreement that challenged all
states to introduce eConveyancing as part of the Commonwealth’s push
towards a national and seamless economy. Since this time, much has been
achieved to transition both government and industry away from paper-based
processes to electronic processes.
In 2014, Landgate received its first electronic transaction and as of February
2019, approximately 78% of current eligible documents are now received
electronically. The Registrar of Titles has the goal of achieving 100% digital
lodgement with the Registry, which will require further cross government and
industry collaboration.
4.2.2 Regulatory Issue(s)
The three key regulatory issues in relation to eConveyancing are:
1. An integrated Landgate and Office of State Revenue (OSR) Electronic
Lodgement Network (ELN) hub facilitating an increase in electronic
document scope to benefit both agencies and industry.
2. The removal of duplicate Certificates of Title (part of the reforms in the
Transfer of Land Amendment Bill 2018 before Parliament) and the creation
of a Title Notification System.
3. The digitisation and electronic lodgement of land titling documents over
Crown Land.
4.2.3 Addressing the Regulatory Issue(s)
Landgate and Office of State Revenue ELN Hub
Landgate has recently mandated the electronic lodgement of eligible
Discharges, Mortgages, Transfers, Caveats and Withdrawal of Caveats (D, M,
T, C, WC). Its current ability to accept electronic lodgement (eligibility scope)
within these document types is approximately 66%. Recent changes to the
National Electronic Conveyancing Data Standards (NECDS) will allow 100%
scope of all D, M, T, C, WC documents. Landgate is currently working with
Property Exchange Australia (PEXA) and Sympli (second Electronic
Lodgement Network Operator (ENLO) to market) to implement these upgrades
in November 2019.
landgate.wa.gov.au Page 8 of 18Landgate and the OSR are currently required to develop on boarding and
support for each ELNO, giving rise to the existence of two organisational
agreements and two technical solutions. ELNOs therefore must deal with two
separate government departments to obtain an end-to-end working solution.
Once a third ENLO enters the market, it will mean that there will be six sets of
organisational agreements and technical solutions in place, which carries
enormous costs and coordination across all parties.
Landgate is striving to achieve the following broad outcomes:
• Provide a one stop onboarding solution for ELNOs when dealing with
Western Australia Government. For example, by ELNOs only integrating
technically with Landgate and in turn Landgate integrating with the OSR;
• Coordinate and maintain full control of the development journey between
Landgate and OSR. For example, expand the scope by integrating in the
OSR other systems (non-ROL) and drive up the scope in timelines that ROL
may not achieve, such as for complex dealings. This will reduce
dependencies and enable full scope of dutiable transactions to be lodged
electronically with Landgate;
• Avoid any intellectual property claim over current integration services
between PEXA and OSR; and
• Enable automation of all top five documents lodged electronically.
Landgate and the State Government are presented with the opportunity to be
leaders in this area, which is essentially a new model for undertaking duty
assessment verification in the eConveyancing ecosystem. No other state or
territory has yet considered a similar solution; however, many are watching on
with interest. These integrations will permit access to data which would
otherwise not be available via a standard integration, allowing Landgate to
significantly increase the speed of its scope increases and its journey to 100%
digital.
Removal of Duplicate Certificates of Title
It is vital that confidence in the integrity and accuracy of the Land Titles
Registry (LTR) is maintained in the face of changes resulting from digital
disruption. Digital disruption is changing the profile of risks to the LTR
occasioned through fraudulent transactions. The Transfer of Land Amendment
landgate.wa.gov.au Page 9 of 18Bill 2018 currently before Parliament will completely remove duplicate
Certificates of Title (CoT).
This legislation is aimed to be in place by the end of 2019. Landgate’s
submission for the amendments identified two additional safeguards against
fraudulent transactions on the Western Australia Land Titles Register (LTR),
these being:
• Extension of verification of identity to all parties in a transaction (recently
implemented); and
• Automated notification to registered proprietors of impending transactions
which is the subject of this proposal.
A common mechanism being used by many businesses is a proactive warning
sent via email or SMS to a registered user. This gives the user an opportunity
to investigate further if the activity is unexpected. This will be available to all
registered proprietors to provide more effective protections against the risk of
title fraud, instead of the existing, ineffective notification application and
duplicate COTs. This is in alignment with Landgate’s 2018-2023 Strategic
Directions that Landgate delivers core services better than ever.
Land Titling Documents for Crown Land
The Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage (DPLH) spend extensive time
sourcing relevant information and manually completing approved forms for
Crown land dealings. Additionally, Landgate spends extensive time in
recapturing information from the lodged forms into the Landgate NLR-Titles
System and to subsequently manage and resolve any identified issues. There
are approximately ~244 forms available for transacting on Crown Land, which
increases the requirements for knowledge, skill and experience in dealing with
Crown land.
Ideally, in the future, DPLH and Landgate will decide to:
• Simplify and rationalise the ~244 forms available for transacting on
Crown land as has been undertaken for freehold forms previously;
• Provide access to digital online e-forms which derive data from the
register and pre-populate information, thus reducing errors and
providing easier automation in the future; and
landgate.wa.gov.au Page 10 of 18• Develop a lodgement portal to achieve a fully digital process of creating,
reviewing, approving, lodging forms, and where possible the automated
examination and registration of select Crown dealings.
The key objectives include to:
• Build relationship with DPLH for ongoing collaboration on innovative
improvements;
• For DPLH to gain efficiency for Crown land documents;
• Efficiency is proven by lodged documents being complete and correct,
reducing examination time, and avoiding processing delays; and
• Landgate acquires digital data for Crown land dealings, which avoids
multiple rekeying of data throughout the process and enables future
automated document examination.
4.2.4 Expected Outcomes and Benefits
Landgate and Office of State Revenue ELN Hub
Benefits for Landgate:
• Faster path to 100% eligibility of D, M, T, C, WC documents;
• Faster path to automation of D, M, T, C, WC documents (80% total
lodgement);
• Decouple Landgate roadmap from OSR ROL development;
• Supports industry priority to enable electronic lodgement of all documents;
and
• Supports a competitive ELNO marketplace and facilitates equivalent
access for all ELNOs.
Benefits for the State Government:
• Supports increased value in commercialisation of automated functions;
• Cross agency solution could be promoted as whole-of-government solution
through collaboration;
• Monetary saving to Government through reducing duplication of effort; and
• Underpins Government support of a competitive electronic conveyancing
market.
landgate.wa.gov.au Page 11 of 18Benefits for OSR:
• Monetary saving through reduction in duplication. This solution is costed at
$235,000, original PEXA integration cost $1.4 million. A full integration with
any subsequent ELNO would likely be like this figure. Therefore, the saving
to integrate Sympli will be approximately $1.2 million and for each
subsequent ELNO there will be a saving of $1.5M. With current applicant
ELNOs this represents a saving of $2.7 million.
Benefits for ELNOs:
• All ELNOS benefit from maintaining one integration rather than multiple,
particularly a single development and release schedule;
• All ELNOs benefit from increased scope of electronic lodgement; and
• New ELNOs avoid any possible IP claim in relation to duplicating current
PEXA services.
Benefits for Conveyancers:
• Access to true competition in the ELNO market which will drive cheaper
prices and better service;
• Increased scope will allow them to cease running electronic and paper
processes in tandem; and
• Increased scope and competition will allow conveyancers to maximise
business earnings.
Removal of Duplicate Certificates of Title
The Title Notification Service will enhance the integrity, security, and accuracy
of the LTR by detecting attempts to lodge fraudulent transactions. In turn, this
will contribute towards maintaining Landgate’s reputation in the community, as
well as reducing the potential for payouts from the Assurance fund.
The project will deliver on the expectation for a notification service identified in
the legislative change submission to remove duplicate CoTs. Additionally, the
Title Notification Service will make an important contribution towards
persuading the community that duplicate CoTs can be removed without
affecting the integrity and security of the LTR, while ensuring that confidence in
the integrity and accuracy of the LTR is maintained considering the changes
resulting from digital disruption.
landgate.wa.gov.au Page 12 of 18Land Titling Documents for Crown Land
Benefits for State and Local Government Agencies:
• Single lodgement channel which will save time and costs (online vs
physical lodgements), as well as offer simplicity of form completion using
embedded help and information sourced from the LTR;
• Reduction in requisition notices due to derived information improving
accuracy, context specific help test and increased validation during form
completion, lodgement and examination; and
• An end-to-end faster turnaround time resulting due to a faster process to
prepare forms using inbuilt services, a reduction in requisition notices
incurring delays, and an enhanced system aided examination and
registration.
Benefits for Landgate:
• Accelerated shift to 100% electronic lodgement of digital data;
• Digital data for 100% scope enables increased validation, a reduction in
manual errors of data capture, reduction in requisition notices, increased
quality of the LTR and the potential for increased auto-examination and
auto-registration; and
• A simpler operational model which provides faster turn-around times and a
reduction in operational costs.
landgate.wa.gov.au Page 13 of 184.3 Geocentric Datum of Australia 2020 (GDA 2020)
4.3.1 Project Overview
The Earth’s tectonic plates are constantly moving. The Australian plate moves
approximately seven centimetres per year and consequently, our coordinates
require updating periodically to realign with Global Navigation Satellite Systems
(GNSS).
Since the implementation of the Geocentric Datum of Australia 1994 (GDA94),
the Australian plate has moved approximately 1.8 metres. Differences of this
magnitude affect applications that rely on accurate satellite positioning such as
in-vehicle navigation systems, automated mining operations, precision
agriculture and surveying where high absolute accuracies are required.
To address the discrepancy, Australia has implemented the GDA 2020.The
Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping has agreed on an
adoption date of 30 June 2020, and a national initiative is currently underway to
implement the GDA2020 by this deadline.
4.3.2 Regulatory Issue(s)
The Australian Government has redacted the GDA94 and implemented the
GDA2020 which is defined in the National Measurement (Recognized-Value
Standard of Measurement of Position) Determination 2017.
Landgate has identified twenty-two pieces of legislation administered by eleven
state agencies that reference an outdated datum which may now require
amendment.
4.3.3 Addressing the Regulatory Issue(s)
Landgate is the lead agency for implementation of the GDA 2020 in Western
Australia and is consulting with Parliamentary Counsel’s Office to determine the
process for coordinating legislative amendments to several Acts and subsidiary
legislation administered across several government agencies.
Landgate will contact the affected agencies to seek confirmation on whether
their legislation which refers to an outdated datum requires amendment. Once it
receives this confirmation, the process of drafting the amendments to legislation
will commence. In this process, the intention is to have the affected legislation
landgate.wa.gov.au Page 14 of 18point to ‘one source of truth’ so that in the future, only that one source will
require amendment to reflect an updated datum.
4.3.4 Expected Outcomes and Benefits
The main advantage of GDA2020 is that the coordinates will be immediately
compatible, at the decimetre level, with GNSS derived coordinates referenced
to global coordinate systems utilised by GNSS, such as WGS84 or ITRF2014,
and with other coordinate systems used in other countries.
It will ensure Australians continue to have access to the most accurate location-
based information routinely achievable and hence, a more efficient and
confident exchange of spatial information between digital systems, meeting the
requirements of the digital age.
Anyone that uses a mobile device or relies on location information will benefit
from this work. From applications in building and construction, agriculture,
landscape mapping, transport, insurance, emergency services,
telecommunications — and more. All these sectors use location information
that relies on the national geodetic datum. They will all benefit from access to
information that is more closely aligned with commonly used global coordinate
reference systems.
All members of the spatial information community will be required to make
some changes to common practices to facilitate this change. This includes
those people who take measurements on the ground, surveyors and mappers,
those who manage and deliver spatial information, distributors of spatial
measurement equipment and those who are responsible for updating
geographic information software. Widespread availability of accurate
positioning — a new spatial location paradigm — would necessitate this
community to undertake changes, regardless of any action taken to modernise
the national geodetic datum.
landgate.wa.gov.au Page 15 of 184.4 Enabling red tape reduction through improved data
sharing
4.4.1 Project Overview
The Western Australian Whole-of-Government Open Data Policy (the Policy)
aims to improve management and use of the public sector’s data assets in
order to deliver value and benefits for all Western Australians, including greater
sharing of high value data across the public sector and, where appropriate, with
the public. Data that is more easily discoverable and re-usable enables
evidence-based policy decisions, strategic and targeted cross-agency
collaboration; and the development of new services more quickly at lower
costs.
4.4.2 Regulatory Issue(s)
For the state to maintain its competitive advantage, a greater shift towards
innovation and technology is required. Critical components to this are the data
and information resources which are set to grown exponentially within Western
Australia. Many agencies already make their data available for reuse by others,
either within the public sector only, or for the broader community. This data is
usually made available via agency websites, in reports and publications, or via
a request from another agency or member of the public. Given that data
sharing does already occur to such an extent, the key regulatory issue is
therefore the necessity to improve data sharing by facilitating and progressing
opening access to government data; improving upon the management and use
of data within government; and removing restrictions surrounding data use
where appropriate.
4.4.3 Addressing the Regulatory Issue(s)
As the lead agency for implementation of the Policy, Landgate anticipates
continuing to assist other agencies involved in regulatory reform by enabling
improved data sharing across a broader range of agencies. Landgate offers
access to expertise across a number of other data sharing agencies; support
for making data secure and discoverable through data.wa.gov.au; and
assistance in discovery and access to data from other agencies to support
improved service delivery.
landgate.wa.gov.au Page 16 of 18Through the establishment of data.wa.gov.au, over 70 agencies now share
over 2,200 datasets with each other via a secure service. This shared platform
allows data to be secured so that it is either available to other agencies (down
to an individual user level) only, or the data can be shared more openly,
including with the public. Currently, approximately 550 datasets are shared
within government only, with the remainder being shared publicly through
data.wa.gov.au.
The data does not have to be copied to data.wa.gov.au in order to be shared,
rather, data.wa.gov.au can be used simply as a whole-of-government catalogue
of what data exists, including information about its suitability for purposes other
than that for which it was created. Additionally, a standardised approach to
sharing data and associated metadata has been created and is being used by
the community of contributing agencies.
4.4.4 Expected Outcomes and Benefits
Improved management and use of data within government, and enabling
broader access and use (e.g. by non-government organisations, businesses
and industry, academia and members of the public) has a range of potential
benefits for both the public sector and the community. This includes a more
efficient and effective government through improvements in the use and
application of data for financial and evidence-based policy decisions, strategic
and targeted cross-agency collaboration, and the development of innovative
solutions, services and tools where there is an identified policy or community
need.
Through ensuring that data is easier to find and use, as well as opening access
to other data sets, it unlocks opportunities for the public sector, businesses and
communities to modernise regulatory process, reduce red tape, and to reduce
duplication of effort across the public sector and the broader community.
More specifically, the single discovery point for data that is shared across the
public sector at data.wa.gov.au provides the following key benefits:
• Enables all agencies, and the public sector where appropriate, to easily
discover data that may be useful for improving service delivery;
• Reduces the cost and time involved in finding data to support business
processes, and the appropriate contact to assist with enquiries about the
data;
landgate.wa.gov.au Page 17 of 18• Makes data available in formats that are amenable to re-use in business
processes; and
• Provides assistance and guidance for the use of shared data, developed
through over 30 years of collaboration between public sector agencies in
Western Australia.
5 Contact Details
If you would like to discuss Landgate’s proposed projects further, please contact Legislation
and Policy at 08 9249 8409 or legislationandpolicy@landgate.wa.gov.au.
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