Faafoi Kris: Courts and Criminal Matters Bill — In Committee 
Faafoi Kris: Courts and Criminal Matters Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:673;Page:19783] 
KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana) 
: 
 Taloha ni Mr Chair. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak to Part 2 of the Courts and Criminal Matters Bill. I hope that this part will as my colleague Stuart Nash mentioned in his contribution change the attitudes of drivers. 
Far too many drivers are racking up all these fines—I think I heard just a few minutes ago that $672 million is outstanding—and far too many simply do not care about the fines they are racking up. I mentioned in my earlier contribution the level to which young drivers get themselves into a spot of bother in terms of not being able to pay some of their fines. With $672 million outstanding for fines I hope this bill changes the attitude of those drivers who have a significant amount in unpaid fines racked up in their name and under their licence and who do not care at all whether that is paid off. 
I want to talk about an experience I had in my own electorate when I spent a night with the traffic police about a month ago. We pulled over a young driver on the main road. I will not do anything to identify him at all but when he was pulled over— 
Michael Woodhouse 
: That’s lucky for Rick! 
KRIS FAAFOI 
: It was not a motorbike so it was not— 
Stuart Nash 
: He said “a young driver”. 
KRIS FAAFOI 
: It was a young driver. He only just passed the breath alcohol test and after some investigation into the computer system it was found that he had a significant amount in unpaid fines under his name. His licence was suspended as well which was another issue and he would have been pinged for something else not necessarily under this bill. His attitude to the fines was that he could not afford them they were too much and he would keep driving until he was caught—as he was that night. 
That kind of driver is someone whom this part will address because of those attitudes. We need to make sure that if people have a significant amount in unpaid fines racked up under their name there is a process through which they will be I guess frightened into making sure that those fines are paid. 
As Stuart Nash said in his speech there is a robust process covering how these driver licence stop orders are imposed on drivers who have significant amounts of money outstanding with the courts. This bill sends a message to those drivers that unless they make an arrangement to pay off some of their fines they will be taken off the streets and if they do not take any action themselves to pay them the courts will take action against them. 
As Stuart Nash said there is a period after a warning is issued in which people have 14 days to sort themselves out. If they do not make an arrangement to pay the fine do not pay the fine at all or do not take any action at all these stop orders will be imposed on them. After that if they do not act they will be suspended and will stay suspended until they take some action. It is my understanding that the licence will be taken off them and unless they make some kind of arrangement to pay off the fine they will stay suspended. They will not get back the licence until they have made the payment. 
There is also the ability under this bill for cars to be impounded for 28 days. I think that is a positive move. These people who are flouting the law with absolutely no regard for the fact that they owe money should have some serious action taken against them. 
As I said it is an attitudinal change we are trying to address in those drivers who do not care that they might have a number of outstanding fines against them. Along with the fines goes behaviour. These people obviously do not care about the fact they owe a significant amount of money and for the most part they are probably some of the ones who are acting dangerously out on the roads because they have racked up a significant amount of trouble through the fines they owe. Along with streamlining the process in Part 1 this Part 2 takes action to change some of the attitudes of those drivers who have racked up these fines who do not care and who flout the authority of the courts to take action against them through fines. 
This is a positive move. As I say $672 million is a large amount of money outstanding. We support this move to try to get some of those fines back into the coffers.