Page 2673 - Week 09 - Thursday, 25 August 1994
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MAGISTRATES COURT (ENFORCEMENT OF JUDGMENTS) BILL 1994
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General and Minister for Health) (11.02): Madam Speaker, I present the Magistrates Court (Enforcement of Judgments) Bill 1994.
Title read by Clerk.
MR CONNOLLY: I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
This Bill was tabled in the Assembly earlier this year as an exposure draft for public comment. In essence, the Bill provides for new procedures for the enforcement of judgment debts and implements the Australian Law Reform Commission's report on debt recovery and insolvency - a report that was issued in the early 1980s. The traditional enforcement orders that the Magistrates Court can make remain unchanged. Those enforcement orders are instalment orders, garnishee orders and writs of execution. The Bill sets out new procedures for obtaining and applying these orders.
Madam Speaker, this may not be one of the more glamorous areas of the law; nevertheless, the significance of this legislation should not be underestimated. As I indicated in my tabling speech, this legislation has relevance to those persons in the community who have difficulty obtaining moneys due to them from judgment debtors. Equally, the Bill has relevance to those persons who cannot or will not pay their judgment debts. The current enforcement procedures are outdated, inadequate and inefficient. One good example of this concerns garnishee orders made against a judgment debtor's earnings. Currently, a garnishee order applies to only one pay period. It is a time consuming and expensive process for a judgment creditor to keep seeking any necessary continuation of the order on a pay by pay basis. The Bill provides that a garnishee order will continue to operate until the judgment debt is entirely extinguished.
The reach of the legislation, through the usual garnishee orders, also extends to employers and financial institutions. For example, a judgment creditor may obtain garnishee orders against a judgment debtor who is in paid employment and with savings in the bank. In this situation, the employer subject to the garnishee order will be required to divert part of the employee's wages or salary to the judgment creditor. Likewise, the bank will be required to pay the savings of the judgment debtor to the judgment creditor to satisfy the judgment debt. There are, of course, safeguards built into the legislation which protect various aspects of the judgment debtor's personal and working life.
Madam Speaker, there are many similar examples outlined in my tabling speech which demonstrate the benefits of the legislation. I will not go over them again now. Not surprisingly, submissions received during the public consultation stage were strongly positive and supportive of the legislation. I would like to take this opportunity to formally thank those persons and organisations who took the trouble to examine the draft Bill, and especially those who provided written comments. It is also an appropriate opportunity to commend the Magistrates Court for their assistance. I know that the court has worked closely with my department in developing and refining the legislation.
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