Page 1595 - Week 08 - Thursday, 28 September 1989
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unpaid fines. I should also note that this does not breach the Government's undertaking not to increase rates or taxes for individual citizens or households.
A major cost to the Government and taxpayers which will be eliminated by the combined introduction of fine default cancellation and the proposed administrative charge are those associated with the issuing of summonses and the necessity for the Magistrates Court to deal with these cases. At present nearly 40 per cent of recipients fail to make payment. Last financial year this resulted in nearly 30,000 summonses being sent out, representing almost a quarter of all infringement notices originally issued. It is clearly impossible to justify the burden which this places on the Magistrates Court, particularly when 97 per cent of the summonses issued are not personally defended in court.
This brings me to the question of whether the Bill will affect the legal rights of persons who receive parking infringement notices. The substitution of civil for criminal enforcement and the introduction of the fine default cancellation scheme proposed in the Bill will not diminish existing rights. Although the proposals contained in this Bill are intended to relieve the burdens currently placed on the Magistrates Court, it will still be possible for anyone who wishes to do so to dispute a parking infringement in court. As the Magistrates Court will only have to deal with defended cases, which currently amount to less than one per cent of all infringements issued, it will, I hope, be possible for these cases to be dealt with much more expeditiously than at present.
If taxes and charges are to be kept down, it is clearly of vital importance that action is taken now to reduce the future cost of parking enforcement to the ACT Government and the Territory's taxpayers. That, together with the decriminalisation of parking offences, is precisely what the proposals contained in this Bill for a fine default cancellation scheme, incorporating an administrative charge, are designed to achieve.
Consequential amendments to the Magistrates Court Ordinance will also be made by the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department. The opportunity has also been taken to adjust the levels of certain fines to bring them more into line with the seriousness of the offence. I commend the Bill to the Assembly. I present the explanatory memorandum to the Bill.
Debate (on motion by Mr Stefaniak) adjourned.
MOTOR TRAFFIC (AMENDMENT) BILL (No. 3) 1989
MRS GRASSBY (Minister for Housing and Urban Services) (11.06): I present the Motor Traffic (Amendment) Bill (No. 3) 1989. I move:
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