Page 1907 - Week 05 - Thursday, 3 May 2012
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The Greens’ bill also would allow people in financial hardship or with special circumstances to apply to the authority to pay off the fine by undertaking community work or a social development program. These programs would be rehabilitative and beneficial to the community. The Greens’ bill would allow people to apply to the authority to have a fine waived. This is for people in special circumstances, such as disability or homelessness, who cannot afford to pay the fine and are unlikely to ever be able to pay the fine and who are not suitable to undertake community work or a social development program.
The Greens’ bill has received wide support from the community and ACT community groups who work with people involved in the traffic fine system every day. The proposals in the Greens’ bill also have the support of the targeted assistance panel. Its report recommends the introduction of options for payment by instalment, waiver or write-off, and community service and/or personal development in lieu of fees and fines.
I intend to bring my bill back for debate in the Assembly next week and I am very hopeful of support from both parties. However, because the legislation we are debating at this moment changes the same act as my bill amends, I have needed to make technical updates to my bill and am doing this in good faith to allow the passage of the government’s bill before us today.
To sum up, this is a bill the Greens will support. But on the issue of infringement payment flexibility it needs to go much further and I expect that other parties will support my bill next week to achieve this.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development) (10.39): The ACT has been extremely fortunate to record just one road fatality in the last 12 months, but this fatality tragically occurred on the past weekend. I think it is important that I offer my sympathies to the family and friends of Mr Stewart Orme, who died riding his motorcycle on the weekend. It was a tragic event.
Despite our good record, serious crashes continue to occur. Drivers continue to speed, run red lights, drive without a wearing seat belt, and drive while texting or talking on their mobile phone. Police are continuing to catch drivers who are seriously affected by alcohol or drugs, and regrettably some of these drivers have young children as passengers. Police and road transport agencies are continuing to issue a high number of infringement notices for offences against the road transport laws, including for road safety offences that attract demerit points, such as speeding and red light offences.
The existing scheme is based on an enforcement model whose origins date back nearly 30 years. Since the infringement notice model was first introduced, there have been significant advances in technology for processing infringement notices and major changes to the broader legal framework in the territory.
These days, the processing of an infringement notice under the road transport laws is fully integrated into the rego.act system, which also manages the vehicle registration,
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