Fines Enforcement and Recovery Unit

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:57): My question is to the Attorney-General. Why did the Attorney-General's Department contract KPMG to prepare a report on the Fines Enforcement and Recovery Unit planning, and further, the Anteris Management Pty Ltd on the Fines Enforcement and Recovery Unit review, for which the annual report confirms payments of more than $10,000 each? What were the conclusions or recommendations of those reports?

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice Reform, Minister for Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Child Protection Reform, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for Consumer and Business Services, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (15:58): I welcome this question, because the Fines Enforcement and Recovery Unit is a very important innovation by this government to try to improve the recovery of moneys owed to the people of South Australia, in the form of the Treasury, by people who have done the wrong thing.

As members would be aware, some of this money is money which may have been imposed through a traffic infringement notice or something of that nature. Some of this money might even be for things like council fines that we collect on their behalf. There has been an ongoing interest in how this recovery of fines is going. We have improved a lot, but I don't accept that we can't do better.

I have asked the Fines Enforcement and Recovery Unit to give me advice as to how they might improve. I am not in a position to advise the parliament about those two particular inquiries at the moment but I will find out, and I will find out what precisely was recommended by those investigations. But I say to the parliament that I am very happy to see improvement in fines recovery, and I am hopeful that we can continue to improve that. In fact, although I dare not speak about it, I think we have measures before us shortly to enhance the performance of that unit. I think that is all to the public good.