Page 2439 - Week 11 - Thursday, 2 November 1989
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We talk about a socially just Labor Party which is concerned about those socially disadvantaged people out there in the community. What about the lady pushing the pram back to the car, with two children, five minutes late to collect the car, who has to wear a $30 parking fine? Fourteen days later she is then expected to pay an additional $20. That is $50 she is paying. Very often in this climate of high interest rates it is very difficult for some of those single income people to actually afford to pay $50. She certainly did not set out to get herself a parking ticket, but it does happen. I would have thought that an extra 14 days, to make it 28 days, would have been much, much better.
We are proposing an amendment which provides for a $30 additional cost after 28 days. I think that that would be much more appropriate. The figure is, in fact, much higher than that of any other State that imposes such a charge. In fact, in New South Wales it is $27; in Victoria $10; and in South Australia $10. Queensland does not have any additional cost; nor do Tasmania and Western Australia. So if, in relation to the Bill, we were to go down the path of looking at 28 days, obviously that does not necessarily mean that a reminder note provision has to be put in the Bill itself. It should be just one of those things that is done in a regulatory fashion, as part of the mechanics of the Bill, if you like.
I would suggest that that would be a much more appropriate way to go than the current situation where, after 14 days, people who have not been able to get the money together to pay a fine of $30 are expected to pay an extra $20. So they are immediately up for $50. That is totally unacceptable. I would have thought that the socially just Labor Party that we are talking about here would be looking at doing something much more appropriate for the average people out there in the community.
MR JENSEN (4.35): The Rally supports the general thrust of this Bill, particularly the proposal to remove the ultimate sanction of prison for those convicted of parking offences. My colleague Mr Collaery will be speaking a little later on, and he will comment in relation to the various times of issuing parking tickets and in relation to the matter of whether there should be some form of period of grace before a person has to actually pay the parking fine.
Mr Duby has already referred to the tragic consequences of a parking offender being gaoled in New South Wales. I have been advised by Mr Stefaniak that no such sanctions have taken place in the ACT. So I guess this particular legislation ensures that we never get down that track in the ACT. Of course, we must bear in mind that, were we to do so, at the moment, anyway, such offenders would have to go to New South Wales prisons. I suspect that is probably one of the reasons why that has never taken place. Mr Stefaniak agrees, so I defer to his superior knowledge of the court system - from the right side, of course, I should add.
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