Land and property

Strata Title Ownership Scheme passed
Relevant Acts for the strata title ownership scheme were passed in the March 2022 Parliament session. Allens previously discussed these new changes in 2019.

Among those passed were the Strata Title Act 2022 and the Strata Title Management Act 2022. The Strata Title Act 2022 generally provides for the creation and registration of strata title properties, while the Strata Title Management Act 2022 provides for the management and running of properties under the strata title scheme.  

Resources and industry

Moratorium on Voluntary Carbon Market Projects
On 7 March 2022, Hon Wera Mori, Minister for Environment, Conservation and Climate Change, released a notice imposing a Moratorium on new and intending voluntary carbon market projects to trade carbon credits. The Moratorium was imposed to ensure voluntary projects are brought under the Climate Change Development Authority (CCDA), to conduct an audit of the existing voluntary projects. Mr Mori stated that he will be taking a policy submission to the NEC to effect the Moratorium. To date, there has been no notice confirming if the NEC deliberated on the Moratorium.

Competition and consumer

Electricity Regulatory Contract Review – commencement of the review process
The ICCC has announced that it will continue the Electricity Regulatory Contract Review process for the period 2017 to 2022. The process was put on hold in 2021 following Parliament's passing of the National Energy Authority Act 2021, which paved the way for the establishment of the National Energy Authority to replace the ICCC as the regulator of the electricity supply industry. While there appears to have been some initial confusion around which entity would continue the process of reviewing the Electricity Regulatory Contract, this appears to have now been resolved, given the ICCC has restarted the process. The due date for submissions was 25 March 2022. There has been no indication of when the ICCC will commence a review of the Electricity Regulatory Contract applicable from the end of this year for the next five years.

News & other developments

2022 National General Election timeline
The 2022 National General Election will be conducted over a period of 13 weeks, commencing with the issue of writs on 28 April 2022 to the return of writs on 29 July 2022.

Electronic Transactions Act passed
The Electronic Transactions Act 2021 was passed in the November 2021 sitting and certified on 23 February 2022.

The application of the Act is wide and covers any kind of data message and electronic record, communication and document used in commercial and non-commercial activities in international and domestic dealings, transactions, arrangements, agreements, exchanges and storage of information.

For more information please contact our team below or visit our PNG page on the Allens website.