Page 3150 - Week 08 - Thursday, 25 June 2009
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(6) Yes. The outstanding debt includes infringements that date back to 1980. These infringements remain on the rego.act database and payments are collected from customers when they apply for an ACT Driver Licence at any time in the future.
(7) Traffic and parking infringement recovery was considered as part of the Collection of Fees and Fines Auditor-General Report No. 3 2007. The recommendations relating to improvements to recover traffic and parking infringement penalties were recommendations 5, 7, 8 and 9.
Recommendation 5was that the Department of Justice and Community Safety (JACS)implement the recommendations of the Department of Territory and Municipal Services (TAMS) internal audit to:
(i) document the follow up of outstanding parking infringement notices;
(ii) establish documented quality assurance procedures; and
(iii) ensure that reasons for Parking Infringement Notice withdrawal are consistent with Ministerial notices.
As noted in the Auditor-Generals report parking operations transferred from TAMS to JACS in 2006, but responsibility for following up outstanding parking infringement notices was not transferred.
Staff conform with an established process for the reviewing requests to withdraw, this ensures consistency by staff in the application of the Guidelines, Notice of Guidelines about Withdrawal of Infringement Notices under the Road Transport (General) Act 1999.
Recommendation 7 was that TAMS and JACS consider the merit of entering into bilateral arrangements with other jurisdictions, particularly NSW and Victoria, regarding the exchange of demerit points and the collection of traffic and parking infringement penalties incurred by interstate motorists. The recommendation also suggested that consideration be given to using debt collection agencies in other jurisdictions to recover debts incurred in the ACT by interstate motorists.
TAMS has written to the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority to ascertain whether it would be willing to participate in a cross-border scheme to enforce traffic fines. However, the response received advised that NSW would be pursuing cross-border infringement penalty recovery through jurisdictional forums, rather than entering a bilateral agreement.
The issue of using debt collection agencies for outstanding amounts is being considered by an Inter-departmental committee on debt recovery, being led by ACT Treasury.
Interstate demerit point exchange (DPX) is being progressed at a national level through the Austroads Registration and Licensing Task Force. The major consideration that this group needs to finalise is the consideration of whether demerit points applicable to the offence in the jurisdiction where the offence occurred should be applied (the Rome rule). It is expected that this work will be finalised in 2009. Rebuilding the ACT DPX system will only proceed once a decision on the Rome rule is reached.
Recommendation 8 was that TAMS resolve resourcing issues to enable the timely implementation of enhancements to rego.act, where those enhancements will improve the collection of road transport fees and fines.
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