te Heuheu Georgina: Courts and Criminal Matters Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
te Heuheu Georgina: Courts and Criminal Matters Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 19 June 2003. Volume:609;Page:6461. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU (NZ National) 
: 
 I am pleased to rise in the first reading of this bill. I agree with my colleague Richard Worth who indicated that National supports this bill. Primarily we support the bill because we clearly believe in personal responsibility and this bill is aimed at ensuring that people are held accountable for their actions by providing for the better collection of outstanding fines and the tougher enforcement of fines. 
I personally have an interest as a former Minister for Courts in measures that enable the department to be a better collector of fines. I am hopeful that the measures proposed by this Minister will give additional grunt to the huge task that now faces the Department for Courts. Some newspapers now actually advertise the names of people who owe fines. While that certainly may give the department real leverage to collect fines from defaulters I do not know whether that is necessarily a reasonable development for New Zealand. I am hopeful that the provisions here in this bill might help to minimise that sort of activity. National supports the underlying purpose of the bill and looks forward to its scrutiny by the select committee. 
As the Minister has indicated the bill aims to improve the effectiveness of the Department for Courts’ fines and civil enforcement activities and it contains various amendments to a number of statutes that impact on those activities. The powers of the Department for Courts to gather information about fines defaulters and to enforce fines were significantly extended by the Summary Proceedings Amendment Act 1998 and the new tracing and enforcement options implemented through that legislation have made a significant contribution towards the enforcement of unpaid fines. This bill seeks further improvement in that area. 
I want to spend a little time on flagging what I think will be an increasing problem for the Government. I will give the Minister the benefit of the doubt and hope that he has these issues in his mind. When we look at the summary by the Department for Courts in the estimates this year and see the increasing trend towards infringement impositions then we really have to worry. The last several years have seen a massive increase in the use of infringement fines as a justice sanction. My worry would be that despite the best intentions of this bill the sanctions it contains may not be sufficient to get on top of the rising trend. It may be that the Government needs to look at the viability of using such sanctions. We in National are worried that if the Government is unable to bring the fines defaulters to account—in other words if they are able to get away without paying—then the law will be seen to be ineffective and will be brought into disrepute. We cannot allow that to happen. 
If members look at the statement of intent of the Department for Courts and at its review of the trend towards increasing numbers of infringement notices being issued then they will see that we have cause to be concerned that even with the additional provisions in the bill that problem may not be able to be properly addressed. It is something that the select committee will have to look at because such things as defaulters’ names being published and information being exchanged between Government departments—which this bill allows—even though they may be necessary sometimes come at a cost. The cost will be I suppose in terms of the loss of privacy of information for individuals. I think that all Governments need to ensure that they minimise the extent to which information about individuals can be passed backwards and forwards between Government agencies. 
The other matter of concern that I also want to refer to is that the statement of intent of the New Zealand Police states that 30 percent more infringement notices will be issued in the coming year than were issued last year. So already there is an intent there— 
Ron Mark 
: Look out Maori in your old cars! 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU 
: That is certainly an issue. My immediate concern though is that already we see a trend in the ballooning number of infringement notices being issued and nothing in the statements of intent of either the Department for Courts or the New Zealand Police suggests there will be any falling-away in the number of infringement notices issued. Parliament will have to keep in mind that at some stage that whole area may have to be reviewed. Unless the Department for Courts can get on top of the fines defaulters—they are absolutely numerous and the amounts owing are also huge—then we may be back in this House in the near future to look at the whole area again and that would be a pity. I hope the Minister has taken into account the trends that have surfaced over the last wee while and also the increasing trend indicated in the statements of intent—particularly that of the police—with regard to that issue. 
In terms of the statutes that are included in this omnibus bill Nandor Tanczos made some comments about an issue that arises from the amendments to the Crimes Act. I touched on this briefly earlier in my contribution in a general way. It is the issue about allowing the law to take its course and giving proper assistance and support when we call on a Government agency to bring the fines defaulters to heel. However there is also the issue of balancing against that need—the need for justice to be seen to have been done—the need to provide new powers that possibly have the potential to be used in a manner that would then make individuals wonder whether that is a reasonable sort of development. 
Lastly I say that when nearly 200000 people are involved with overdue fines amounting to $5000 that is a huge amount of money owed to the taxpayer. It will take a significant amount of resource for the courts to collect that money. When one looks at outstanding fines of over $30000 and sees 26 people are involved in them again I say those amounts are worrying. As I said the Minister has no doubt looked carefully at this matter in introducing these provisions. I hope that the Government does tackle the issue of the rising trend in the imposition of fines.