Page 1659 - Week 05 - Thursday, 11 May 2006
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I am also concerned that when fines are ordered, an individual’s ability to pay the fine will be greatly impacted upon by their wealth and their ability to access large sums of ready cash. Such provision surely is not fair or equitable. A logical corollary is that low-income people are more likely to default on their fines and therefore to spend time in jail more often than those on higher incomes. This would then increase their already fragile economic viability and increase their exposure to people who are unlikely to offer them positive alternatives to criminal behaviour. Mr Speaker, as you know, a fine can be earned by just racing off into a shop to change a note when you do not have enough change for a parking meter.
Mr Mulcahy: No, that is a defence, if you read the legislation.
DR FOSKEY: We find usually that there is no tractability on that one. I would be very pleased to hear of people who have discovered it.
Amendments Nos 1 to 5 seek to amend the Magistrates Court Act. If passed, they will provide for the registrar of the court to order a fine defaulter to pay off their fine in community service work at a rate of 7.5 hours per $100. We chose this rate because 7.5 hours appear to be the union accepted working hours per day, plus a half-hour break, and currently fine defaulters pay off fines at $100 a day in prison.
We envisage that the order to complete community service work would operate in the same manner as a good behaviour order that is subject to a community service condition, as per the Crimes (Sentence Administration) Act 2005, part 6.2. If the fine defaulter, for some reason, does not complete the community service work, the defaulter could then be sent to prison to pay off the fine at $100 a day.
My sixth amendment relates to the Road Transport (General) Act 1999. Currently, if a person defaults on a fine, their car licence and registration can be withdrawn until the fine is fully paid off. We have amended that so that once the person starts community service work they can have their licence and their registration back, because we believe that this is a significant sign that the fine defaulter is paying off the fine and, due to the manner in which Canberra is set out and the poor availability of public transport in some areas, the fine defaulter may need their car to get to the community service work and to their other work and destinations associated with family needs. We must remember again that these people are not criminals; they are people who were not able to pay their fines. We have not provided for the suspension to be reinstated if the community service work order is cancelled because, presumably, the fine defaulter would be imprisoned.
The amendments I have moved are intended to bring us into line with other states and territories, something that the opposition wanted to do in regard to the laws on terrorism. Such a system already exists in New South Wales. We have heard many stories about people there being unable to pay a fine due to limited finances and waiting until the fine defaults to a community service order.
Western Australia also has this scheme and it is noted on the web page for its Department of Corrective Services that 40 per cent of the community service hours result from fine defaulters being unable to pay and being required to undertake community work as an alternative penalty and that the average cost of keeping an adult offender in
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