COURTS ADMINISTRATION AUTHORITY, FINES PAYMENT UNIT

In reply to Mrs REDMOND (Heysen) (26 June 2008).

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON (Croydon—Attorney-General, Minister for Justice, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Veterans' Affairs): I have received this advice:

Thirty point six per cent of all fines raised during 2007-08 were collected without any follow up activities being necessary by the Courts Administration Authority (CAA) except for the initial notice advising of the amount of the fine.

The remaining 30.4 per cent of fines collected during 2007-08 required follow up activity by the CAA in order to collect. It should be noted that the success of the follow up needs to be measured over the years as some fine debtors have many fines and have entered into time payment arrangements that may take several years to complete. The CAA estimates that 30 per cent to 35 per cent of all fines raised will never be collected because some debtors are difficult to locate.

I refer to the following extract from the Hon. K.T. Griffin's second reading speech delivered on 9 July, 1998 for the Statutes Amendment (Fine Enforcement) Bill 1998, a bill which introduced the current fine recovery model.

It is natural for some individuals to avoid payment and their legal obligations deliberately. In some cases, people will acknowledge their legal obligation but ignore any action required to meet those obligations.

The Courts Administration Authority employ a variety of measures to extract fine payments from such unwilling debtors.