Page 1201 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 March 2013
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Similarly, administrative arrangements are required to support the implementation of the community work or social development program option. This includes a process for assessing whether an applicant satisfies the relevant criteria, approving suitable organisations to provide approved programs, monitoring compliance with program participation and adjusting outstanding penalties to reflect the discharge of the penalties through program participation.
I foreshadowed in the debate on the 2012 amendments the possibility of additional amendments to make aspects of the new scheme fully effective. As work has proceeded on the detailed design of the administrative and system arrangements for these options it has been possible to identify legislative supports which will be required for the operation of the scheme. The purpose of this bill is to build on the amendments passed last year and address several practical issues that have arisen during the design of the implementation arrangements before the commencement of the arrangements on 24 May.
This bill covers two broad areas: it introduces the concept of infringement notice management plans and it modifies the automatic minimum disqualification period for people convicted of driving while their licence is suspended. The concept of an infringement notice management plan has been developed to provide an efficient arrangement for managing payment by instalments and discharge the penalties by work or development programs irrespective of how many infringement penalties are owed.
Essentially, an infringement notice management plan is an agreement between the administering authority that issued the infringement and the person owing the infringement penalty. The agreement enables a person with several outstanding infringement notices to consolidate all of the person’s penalties into a single debt. Under an infringement notice management plan a person has two ways to discharge the consolidated debt. In most cases the person will make payments by instalment until the debt is paid. An applicant who can demonstrate particularly difficult financial circumstances or other relevant circumstances may also be able to participate in an approved work or development program to discharge the debt at an agreed rate.
Under the 2012 act these two options involved two separate application processes. This bill combines those processes into one to streamline the operation of the infringement management system. This has benefits for applicants in a one-stop-shop model and administrative efficiencies. A single process will better support situations where a person discharges outstanding penalties through a combination of making payments and participating in a community work or social development program. For example, a person might have a plan to cover their outstanding infringement notice penalties. If the applicant satisfies the criteria to participate in a work or development program or secure a place in such a program, he or she may discharge a proportion of the penalties owing by participating in that program. If, at the end of the program, any penalties remain owing, the person may seek to pay the balance through regular instalments.
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