2018 saw the long awaited release of the final Murray Report on the National Review of Security of Payment Laws. There were some valued recommendations in the report but there appears to have been no take up of the proposal to have uniform laws. Instead the last quarter of 2018 heralded amendments to the SOP legislation in New South Wales and in Queensland and the Fiocco Report in Western Australia with the legislative changes in NSW clearly cherry picking what the NSW parliament considered to be the best of the Murray Report recommendations. Surely this is not what was intended.

Overall, the case law developments demonstrate the imperative to comply with the requirements of, and timeframes prescribed in, the SOP legislation. Judges continue to reiterate the underlying purpose of the SOPA framework to 'pay first, argue later'.

We hope you find our comprehensive analysis of the key 2018 security of payment developments useful. We would love to hear from you if you have any questions or feedback.