Page 4516 - Week 15 - Thursday, 22 November 1990
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Mrs Grassby: You are talking about the Residents Rally again.
MR SPEAKER: Order!
MR DUBY: No, that is a telephone box. These procedures are quite explicit, and they have been correctly followed by the Department of Urban Services on this occasion. For example, take a hypothetical motorist who receives a parking infringement notice in the middle of July. If our hypothetical motorist did not pay his parking fine within 28 days, a final notice would have been sent to his last known residential or business address in mid August. The final notice would allow that person an additional 14 days to pay, but would impose a charge of $25 to cover administration costs. If the fine and the administration charge were not paid within that extra 14 days, then our hypothetical motorist's licence, or their car registration if they did not hold an ACT driver's licence, would become subject to immediate cancellation without further notice. Fortunately for our hypothetical motorist, the Department of Urban Services does not cancel licences or registrations without further notice. Though there is no legal requirement to do so, the department, in fact, sends out a letter warning the motorist that cancellation is going to take place if the fine is not paid, and giving them a last chance to do so.
This letter, giving that motorist another seven days to pay, will be sent out again to the same residential or business address as the final notice was posted to. If the motorist then does not pay within those seven days, the registration will be cancelled, if they do not hold an ACT licence. Of course, our hypothetical motorist, if he is a bona fide resident of the ACT, would hold an ACT driver's licence in accordance with the provisions of the Motor Traffic Act. It is illegal to reside in the ACT and to continue to hold an interstate driver's licence, just as it is illegal to display a registration label which is more than three days out of date. Our hypothetical motorist should take note of that.
Mr Stevenson was briefed on the legislation, as were other members of the Assembly. He was in the Assembly when the Bill was debated. In fact, he spoke to it in the debate, as I said. Mr Stevenson had the same opportunity as other members to propose changes and move any amendments to the Bill. Members will, no doubt, recall that the most important feature of the fine default legislation, apart from decriminalising parking matters, was that it introduced the principle of user pays - or, more accurately, infringer pays - into the administration of unpaid fines. It was clearly not fair that ACT taxpayers, and the ACT community generally, should continue to bear the burden placed on the territorial budget by unpaid parking fines and the cost of chasing them up.
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