Rau drags feet on fine debt blow-out
Jan 17, 2012
Hon Stephen Wade MLC
Shadow Attorney General
Shadow Minister for Justice
Today’s announcement of the awarding of a tender contract eight months after it was called highlights how slow the Weatherill Government has been in addressing the almost $250 million dollar uncollected fines problem it created.
In May 2011 the Labor Government announced it was calling a tender for a private debt collection agency to address one fifth of the outstanding fines in South Australia.
Since January 2010, $111 million of outstanding fines have been written off.
Shadow Attorney-General Stephen Wade said law-abiding South Australians were paying for the Labor Government’s appalling performance on fines enforcement.
“It took this Labor Government eight months to award a tender and now they tell us it is merely a 12 month pilot contract. There appears to be no sense of urgency to address this problem,” Mr Wade said.
“Today’s announcement only addresses one-fifth of the debt – we want the Labor Government to respond to last year’s consultation and tell us how they are going to collect the rest of the outstanding fines totalling almost $200 million.
“Labor put out a discussion paper on fines enforcement in September – there are still no outcomes. We just want this Labor Government to get on with it.
“If it takes eight months to award the tender, how long will it take to see results? How long will it take to see action on enforcement?
“South Australians are losing out on services that would be funded by this revenue. The 24 per cent increase in the fines debt in the last financial year alone could have covered the Bicentennial Conservatory funding cut 1,000 times over.
"Labor's lack of commitment and sloppy approach to fines enforcement is simply unjust to the thousands of South Australians who pay their fines on time."