Page 2202 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 22 June 2010
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As you have heard, Mr Assistant Speaker, Volunteering ACT has agreed to work with the government to administer the voluntary community work scheme. This is a great example of government working together with a community organisation, and I thank Volunteering ACT for taking on this role.
To further protect young defaulters, the Department of Justice and Community Safety and the Department of Housing and Community Services are developing a protocol relating to young defaulters, particularly those in the care of the territory, and how they will be dealt with under the new enforcement scheme. This protocol will mean that the fine enforcement unit within the Magistrates Court will be liaising regularly with the office for children and young people when any young offender defaults on a fine. Any relevant information the office for children and young people has about a young defaulter will be shared with the fine enforcement unit, subject of course to any legislative privacy restrictions.
Appropriate enforcement strategies will then be discussed and decided upon, and the office for children and young people will be involved throughout the fine enforcement process. If, in the unlikely event, it is deemed appropriate for a young fine defaulter to be imprisoned in order to discharge an outstanding fine, the government is increasing the rate at which a fine will be discharged from $300 per day of imprisonment to $500 per day of imprisonment.
Furthermore, the maximum period of time for which a young fine defaulter will be able to be imprisoned will be seven days, after which the fine will be taken to be fully discharged. It is envisaged that young offenders would mostly access the imprisonment provisions as a means of cutting out or paying off fines when in custody for other matters. This will assist young offenders to have a clean slate when released back into the community. I would also make the observation that imprisonment itself is a discretionary power and would need to be determined by the court, obviously, on a case-by-case basis.
These protections that I have mentioned will ensure that young defaulters, particularly those who are in the care of the territory, will not be treated unfairly or unreasonably under the new fine enforcement scheme. As you have heard, one of the new reforms to fine enforcement contained in this bill is the ability for the court to order that a fine defaulter’s earnings be redirected in order to satisfy the outstanding debt. The definition of earnings is quite broad and includes a pension, benefit or similar payment. As the explanatory statement to the bill elaborates, a pension, benefit or similar payment could include social security benefits.
As I stated when presenting this bill to the Assembly, any earnings redirection order the court makes must comply with any relevant income protection legislation. This is particularly relevant where a fine defaulter receives a social security benefit administered by Centrelink. Social security payments administered by Centrelink are protected by commonwealth legislation from being redirected or garnisheed through a court order. It is not the intention of the government for this bill to be inconsistent with commonwealth legislation. The reference to a pension, benefit or similar payment in the definition of earnings is worded for maximum coverage of all types of earnings. This definition appears in other legislation, such as the Queensland State Penalties Enforcement Act 1999 and the ACT Court Procedures Rules 2006.
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