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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (4 December) . . Page.. 4672 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing)

government departments to distinguish those defaulters who cannot pay from those who will not pay;

. the Registrar may, where he or she believes that the defaulter has the capacity to pay, make an order for civil enforcement action against the defaulter. Where there is no capacity to pay or the defaulter refuses to pay, the Registrar will, by warrant, commit the defaulter to a period of imprisonment;

. the civil enforcement procedures include a garnishee order which directly debits the defaulter's earnings or attaches to amounts owed to the defaulter and property seizure orders (includes land or goods owned by the person);and

. offenders will be able to apply to the Registrar for extension of time to pay or instalment payments, at any stage of the process prior to a custodial order being imposed.

Under the scheme, the Bailiffs will serve a writ of execution on every fine defaulter who does not comply with a default notice. It is intended that the Bailiffs will, in all cases where it is possible, make contact by telephone with the defaulter to advise them of the impending expiration of the Penalty Notice period and the consequences of non-payment. It is anticipated that this telephone contact will reinforce to defaulters that outstanding fines will be pursued by the courts.

It is accepted that there will be occasions when some people will have difficulties in paying fines. I propose that these cases will be addressed in a number of ways. Payment of fines will be assisted by providing for the payment of the fine by credit card or periodic debit authority where payment by instalments has been arranged. Fine defaulters will be encouraged to sign bank authorisations to permit direct payment of the fine. As I have indicated, time to pay will also be available.

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