Page 1880 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 5 May 2009
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disturbed they are about how careless some people are about their environment and how they seem to think it is okay to leave their rubbish behind them at a cost to all of us.
Recently the Assembly passed new laws increasing penalties for dumping. However, it dismays me that people continue to do this. It is depressing really. I really thought that, as a society, we had got over littering. It would appear that many people do not even bother about leaving such a large item as a vehicle for someone else to clear away. Leaving such a large item as an abandoned vehicle in a public place for someone else to remove is hard to comprehend really.
Vehicles that are no longer working or no longer needed should not be left in a public area for someone else to attend to. Sadly, more frequently than people may realise, this is happening around our cities, in our suburbs, along the roads that we travel on on a daily basis. As Ms Burch and Ms Le Couteur have already mentioned, they stand a great chance of being vandalised. This occurs, of course, again to the cost of all of us.
As Ms Burch mentioned, there are a number of scrap metal merchants that can be contacted to remove such vehicles. In some cases this service will come at no cost to the owner of the vehicle. In other cases the owner of the vehicle might receive recompense for their efforts. However, even if they receive as little as $50, surely that is a better outcome for everyone than leaving a vehicle in a public place for the government inevitably to have to deal with.
This bill changes notice arrangements for the removal of registered vehicles that appear to be abandoned. It will allow a city ranger to securely attach a notice, similar to a defective vehicle notice, on the vehicle, in a conspicuous position, once the city ranger has come to the conclusion that the vehicle has been abandoned. I am advised that, in addition to the general appearance of the vehicle and prior to the notice being affixed to the vehicle, the city ranger will conduct a vehicle registration check in the first instance. Should it be possible to identify an owner at that stage and a phone number can be found to contact them, I am told that the rangers will try to call the owner to confirm ownership and ascertain what the owner is intending to do with the vehicle. If no phone contact can be established, then the city ranger will attend the registered owner’s address to make the same inquiry. However, I am also advised that these steps will only occur for ACT registered vehicles.
I understand that the city rangers will continue to make those checks even with the passage of this bill. If the bill is passed, when no contact can be made, the notice will be affixed to the vehicle. The proposed notice will be an adhesive fluorescent yellow sticker measuring approximately 10 centimetres by 15 centimetres. As mentioned by Ms Burch, this is similar to schemes administered by councils in other jurisdictions. The notice will advise that the person responsible for the vehicle has two working days—and I emphasise working days—to remove the vehicle from the public place, and if this does not happen the department will remove it. As mentioned by the Chief Minister, an offence provision has also been included to make it an offence to remove, deface or interfere with the notice placed on the vehicle. The maximum penalty for those found guilty of such an offence is $2,000.
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