Page 2444 - Week 11 - Thursday, 2 November 1989
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pay. I draw attention to the fact that the Bill does provide for waiver of the fee. I know that has been exercised already in Canberra and it will continue to be exercised. I am quite happy to allow this legislation to go ahead with that waiver.
There is very little point in my reiterating the sorts of arguments that have been presented to date. In the general concept, of course, I support the legislation, as do all members of the Assembly, clearly - with just some difficulty over these amendments that are presented. Generally I think we have had the situation - we may still have such a situation - where the law-abiding citizens have been, in effect, subsidising those who are refraining from paying; in other words, they are taking advantage of the time and therefore not paying their bill promptly.
In fact, a businessman yesterday told me - this is third-hand but it gives some indication of some of the problems - that he is aware of somebody else who has built up a $2,000 bill in terms of parking. That is a pretty hefty sort of a bill and, if that is delayed enough, of course the interest is quite significant. When a business person is forced into that situation it does indicate some problems with the parking situation, but it also indicates what I believe to be a need to do away with this reminder notice as a first stage, and I will be monitoring events carefully and waiting for people to indicate to me whether the waiver is actually working or otherwise.
If you do lose a parking ticket you can write in to the department and say, "I have lost my parking ticket", or, "I am not aware of this. I do not know why I am getting an administrative charge", and they should say, "No administrative charge. Just pay the fine". Obviously if somebody writes in for a fifth or sixth time, or if the person has got $2,000 worth of parking fines - no doubt that example is somewhat exaggerated - he or she should be forced to pay immediately. That may bring a little more efficiency to the whole system and put less of a strain on the rest of the taxpayers. So, with those few comments, Mr Speaker, I will say in general that, in principle, I am certainly supporting this Bill.
MRS GRASSBY (Minister for Housing and Urban Services) (4.53), in reply: Mr Speaker, I am pleased at the generous support by the members of the Assembly on this important issue. In summary, firstly, the Bill decriminalises parking offences. Obviously this is well and truly overdue in this Territory. Secondly, the Government believes that the cost of following up unpaid parking fines should be levied on the infringers themselves and not the taxpayers generally. Thirdly, we need to minimise those costs. As you have heard, approximately 117,000 parking notices are issued each year. Approximately 78,000 reminder notices are sent out. The cost of following up unpaid parking fines is in excess of $20 per notice, a total cost to the ACT taxpayer in excess of $1.6m. I mean, we are on our way to funding the Canberra Hospital, aren't we?
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