Page 1512 - Week 04 - Thursday, 29 March 2012
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Related amendments to the Road Transport (Vehicle Registration) Regulation 2000 provide that if there are two or more registered operators for a vehicle, these operators must agree which of them is to be the contact person for receiving notices, including infringement notices, in relation to the vehicle. That person will be the responsible person for the vehicle. These amendments reflect the current administrative practice within the Office of Regulatory Services.
The amendments I have outlined are directed at the integrity of the infringement notice and demerit point scheme and, in particular, ensuring that where a person commits a traffic offence that person bears the consequences of their offending. The opportunity has also been taken in this legislation to include an amendment—removing restrictions on the time available for a person to ask for extra time to pay an infringement notice penalty.
Late last year the Chief Minister established an expert panel to develop a strategy to assist Canberrans struggling with day-to-day expenses. One of the issues that have been raised in this context is the need for greater flexibility in payment arrangements for people who owe infringement notice penalties.
The government is considering a range of possible options to provide greater flexibility for those under financial stress who have outstanding fines and penalties. It needs to be recognised that some options which may have merit would nonetheless require significant changes to information technology systems or additional administrative resources to be effectively implemented.
However, the removal of the current cut-off time for a person to seek additional time to pay an infringement penalty has been identified as being capable of immediate implementation. This new measure will enable people to make a late application for additional time to take certain action, including disputing the infringement notice, paying it or making a statutory declaration to nominate someone else as the person who committed the offence.
Decisions to approve or reject out-of-time applications for additional time will be subject to guidelines made by the minister, which will be a disallowable instrument. In addition, decisions to refuse applications for extra time will be reviewable. The inclusion of review rights for applications for additional time is a new feature of the legislation and is intended to make the act more compatible with human rights.
The bill also amends the road transport legislation and, in particular, part 3 of the Road Transport (General) Act 1999 and the Road Transport (Offences) Regulation 2005 to update and simplify the process for issuing and serving infringement notices. Much of the detail relating to the service and content of notices is moved from the act to the regulation, consistent with modern drafting practice. The changes made by the bill include clarification of the concept of responsible person for a vehicle. These changes also make it clear that “vehicle” in this context only means vehicles that can be registered.
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