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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (4 December) . . Page.. 4537 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

a driving licence, that licence will be suspended. If the defaulter does not hold a driving licence but is the registered owner of a motor vehicle, that registration will be cancelled. If the person owns more than one vehicle, the registrar will suspend the registration of the vehicle which has the shortest period of registration to run.

If the defaulter has neither a driving licence nor a vehicle registration, they will be disqualified from holding a driving licence. During the time that a person is disqualified they will be unable to obtain a driving licence or register a motor vehicle. If the defaulter is from interstate, disqualification means that an interstate driving licence no longer entitles them to drive in the ACT. The suspension or disqualification will be lifted once the fine is paid, the fine is remitted, the person has served a period of imprisonment in relation to the fine, or the conviction which gave rise to the fine is quashed. This part of the fine default package is modelled on a system that has been in place for some years to deal with people who default in paying parking and traffic infringement notice penalties. Introduction of that system resulted in greatly increased compliance in paying infringement notice penalties. I expect that the present proposals will greatly increase the rate of payment of court-imposed fines.

Some people may criticise the use of these measures to enforce the payment of non-traffic fines. I would say to those people that all of us in society have rights and obligations. Society cannot operate if people exercise their rights but refuse to meet their obligations. Where there is an obligation to pay a fine and that obligation is not met, I see nothing unacceptable in depriving the person of some right as an incentive to pay the fine. I commend the Bill to the Assembly.

Debate (on motion by Mr Whitecross) adjourned.

CHILDREN'S SERVICES (AMENDMENT) BILL (NO. 2) 1997

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (10.47): Mr Speaker, I present the Children's Services (Amendment) Bill (No. 2) 1997, together with its explanatory memorandum.

Title read by Clerk.

MR HUMPHRIES: I move:

That this Bill be agreed to in principle.

The Children's Services (Amendment) Bill (No. 2) 1997 amends the Children's Services Act 1986 so that fines imposed on children may be recovered under the new fine recovery scheme proposed by the Magistrates Court (Amendment) Bill (No. 2) of 1997. The procedure for dealing with defaulters, including children, is now set out in the provisions of Part IX of the Magistrates Court Act and the amended provisions of the Children's Services Act which enable the registrar to commit child fine defaulters to a period of detention at a juvenile institution.

Debate (on motion by Ms Reilly) adjourned.

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