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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (4 December) . . Page.. 4669 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing)

This level of default is occurring despite the fact that the courts, before imposing a fine, must take into account the financial circumstances of an offender as far as they can be ascertained to ensure that fines are not imposed on people who cannot afford to pay and who are likely to default and end up in prison. In addition, the court may allow for time for payment and may also direct payment by instalments.

Despite these provisions, the amounts of court fines currently outstanding as at 3 June 1997 were:

Court No. defaulters Amount
Magistrates Court 1911 $ 911 410
Children's Court 87 $ 21 765
Supreme Court 25 $ 20 726

This Bill, in conjunction with the other bills in this package - the Motor Traffic (Amendment) Bill (No. 7) 1997, the Children's Services (Amendment) Bill (No. 2) 1997, the Remand Centres (Amendment) Bill (No. 2) and the Crimes (Amendment) Bill (No. 7) 1997 - creates a scheme for enforcing unpaid court imposed fines.

The main aim of the scheme is to ensure that the integrity of the fine as an order of the court is maintained through providing an effective sanction for noncompliance. The proposed scheme provides a range of options to avoid, as far as possible, imprisonment and to encourage payment.

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