Page 3089 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 10 September 1991
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continuing with what is basically, I suppose, a user-pays principle. Indeed, that will not only simplify the court process but also speed up a lot of the administrative work that goes on at present in relation to preparing multiple charges and multiple informations. So, these Bills are part of some very necessary legislative reforms which, I am pleased to say, were started during the time of the Alliance Government and continued during the time of this current Government. There are a number of additional tidying up amendments in these three Bills, all of which, I think, will make the administration of justice in the ACT that much more efficient and a little bit more speedy too.
MR COLLAERY (8.12): Mr Speaker, there is an article in, I believe, last month's Australian Law Journal, which I do not have to hand, which proposes that governments consider more omnibus Bills to bring forward these small amendments. I can imagine their saving them a lot of printing and separate debates in this house, and I commend that article to the Attorney.
These Bills also should require us to commend various clerks in both the courthouses and the Government Law Office - or, under its new appellation as the Attorney has it, the Attorney-General's Department - for finding a number of areas where the user-pays principle has not been applied. One is where people apply for a special licence, having lost theirs under the Motor Traffic (Alcohol and Drugs) Act 1977. Traditionally, they have not had to pay a fee in making an application for a special licence. They will now, which I think is quite appropriate.
Also - and the drafters are to be particularly commended on this - in cases where a legally aided person who has had waiver of fees, et cetera, in laying a matter before the court wins and gets judgment, the provisions of subclause 8(d) of the Magistrates Court (Civil Jurisdiction) (Amendment) Bill currently before the house mean that the court can recover the fee for which the waiver was given from the unsuccessful litigant on the other side. That is a very thoughtful amendment and I imagine that as the finances of the Territory tighten up there will be a lot more sifting through the rules and regulations of the courts to recover money.
Mr Stefaniak: A good idea.
MR COLLAERY: Mr Stefaniak says that it is a good idea; but I am sure he would agree with me that the Attorney needs to be careful that, in determining fees in the Small Claims Court, he does not fall prey to the phoenix that comes out every year or so proposing that we start to charge filing fees in that court. That proposal, of course, denies the very reason why we set up, years ago, the Small Claims Court in the Territory. It used to sit over in the
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