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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-10-14 Daily Xml
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FINES COLLECTION

Mrs GERAGHTY (Torrens) (15:30): Can the Attorney-General inform the house about new measures to improve fines collection by the Courts Administration Authority?

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Attorney-General, Minister for Justice, Minister for Tourism) (15:30): Thank you very much, Madam Speaker, and I thank the member for Torrens very much for her important question.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.R. RAU: That is better. This is a—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! We have two minutes left of question time.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: —very important question, and it is a matter that I take very seriously. Members may or may not know that the Courts Administration Authority and the Fines Collection Unit process a number of expiation notices on behalf of people, such as SAPOL, and third parties, such as local government, councils and such like, as well as the result of unpaid fines in criminal proceedings. The government regards it as being a matter of great importance that there be an improvement in the collection rate for these outstanding penalties. The recent state budget, in fact, happily announced extra funding—and I will underline that, 'extra funding'—for additional fines enforcement staff.

The Hon. K.O. Foley interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: They must have gotten past you. This will mean, we believe, substantial increases and improvement in the recovery rate for these unpaid fines. These staff, along with the authorised officers who execute the warrants, will now form a very important new thing called the Fines Enforcement Mobile Task Force.

The Hon. G. Portolesi: A SWAT team?

The Hon. J.R. RAU: That is right. They are going to leave no stone unturned. The task force is going to start off by intensively case managing the recalcitrants who are refusing to pay these debts, and they will be using every legal means to pursue these people. If any of those people happen to be listening to this—and I do not know how they could be, but if they are—they need to become very fearful because—

The Hon. G. Portolesi: Be afraid, be very afraid.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Indeed. We are getting very serious about this—much more serious than we have been. The way to move forward with this, of course, is that the task force has decided as a start—and only as a start—to review the history and enforcement arrangements for all debtors who have over 20 penalties—all of them, every single one of them—and they are going to be targeted over the next six months. It is going to become very unpleasant, because any of them who are under current payment arrangements will have their payment arrangements reconsidered.

The Hon. G. Portolesi interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: That is right. Measures will be taken to recover debts, including, where necessary, warrants of arrest and seizure of goods, which would then be sold. Also, other penalties will be imposed on such people, including having a cessation of business notice with the Registrar of Motor Vehicles, which means they cannot register a motor vehicle; suspension of driver's licences; in some cases compulsory deduction from wages or bank accounts; and so on. But this is just a beginning.

The Hon. K.O. Foley: What else?

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I am glad the honourable member asks me that question. In the immediate future, in an attempt to get this message out and about, members of the task force will be setting up booths around South Australia to advise people of this new stance being taken by the authority, because we do not want people to be caught unawares. The Treasurer will be pleased to know, perhaps, that the Port Adelaide shopping mall, as from Saturday 16 October, is going to be one of the first places where this great information will be provided to members of the public.

The Hon. K.O. Foley interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: There are a lot of synergies happening there. I have to say that this is not an end to this at all: this is a beginning.

The Hon. K.O. Foley: More?

The Hon. J.R. RAU: This is not even an end of the beginning, but it is a beginning. We are looking also to consider the following things, including legislative changes to the sentencing act and the Expiation of Offences Act. We are also presently engaged in making comparisons with the regime operating in other states around Australia to see whether they have methods that are more effective than ours, and, if they do, we will be taking steps to pick them up. These people are being visited, in fact, next week by officers from the Courts Administration Authority in several states. There is a lot of activity going on in that department. We are also looking at additional ways and matching of data activities in order to locate debtors who presently have spent some time and effort hiding themselves from the government. The message for now is: if you haven't paid fines, go to court before the court comes to you.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

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