Willis Scott; Brown SimeonSCOTT WILLIS (Green): Thank you Madam Chair. I appreciate this is the first time I've been able to take a call on this Amendment Paper. I really appreciate the opportunity because it has got a really interesting title the Public Finance (Fines Collection Costs—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill. That's a bit of a mouthful. And we do understand that in the House there has to be a title for a piece of legislation. What I've been thinking about having had a look through this bill coming to it a little bit late because we're trying to rush this through urgency as is usual with the crappy—excuse me the poor legislation that we've become accustomed to.We have here something that we are used to from this Government which is a piece of nonsense. But let's think about the title. We have seen—there's some really interesting amendments I see that we'll get to later. I see that the Hon Duncan Webb has proposed that the title be changed. Replace clause 1 with This Act is the Public Finance (Increase in Charges for Local Body Debt Collection) Amendment Act." Now that seems like a very sensible amendment and I hope the Minister will consider that. But I think we've got options as well. I mean there are more possibilities for a title that accurately represents this less than quality piece of legislation.I note that Tracey McLellan in committee has also proposed an amendment. And this amendment suggests replacing clause 1 with "This Act is the Public Finance (Making Money off Debt Collection) Amendment Act." which again seems much more appropriate to what this bill is actually proposing to do. I personally have come up with another title I think that could be helpful.I think I'd like us to consider the importance of the title actually because we do need to make sure that a title represents what is in the Act what is in the amendment because it has to mean something to ordinary people. So the title that I think—I think we should replace clause 1 with "This Act is the Public Finance (Further Impoverish Local Government) Amendment Act 2024". I think that would be really helpful because we know what local government's gone through. We know that killing three waters has put an incredible burden on ratepayers. We know that local government is not going to be bailed out by this Government.But perhaps if we're considering the title why should we get to choose the title. I'm also really interested and I'd like the Minister to tell us what type of discussion he's had with local government about the title for this bill which will take away money from local government. What discussions has he had and what suggestions has local government given for an accurate title for this bill? Because I think what we'd see would be something much more interesting than we've been able to come up with and certainly with the title that the Minister has given us for a bill that is actually a piece of nonsense. And it is unfortunately the work that we expect from this Government. But let us at least have an accurate title for this bill that tells us what it is. This is taking money away from local government. It is simply to fund tax cuts and tax cuts for landlords. It's not about ensuring a fairer system for anyone. Thank you.Hon SIMEON BROWN (Minister of Local Government): Thank you Madam Chair and thank you members for your questions. The earlier question around cost recovery page 3 of the Cost Recovery Impact Statement outlines how the expenditure in the appropriation for collection and enforcement of fines and civil debt services has increased from $43 million in 1998-1999 to $58.3 million in 2022-23. During that same period of time there has been no increase in the filing fee. There has been a small increase in the enforcement fee. And the percentage of fines retained by the Crown has remained unchanged since it was in 1989. And during that time there's been this thing called inflation and particularly in the last three years there's been a lot of inflation. And so ultimately the point of cost recovery is to ensure that the public services that are delivering this service are able to raise the funds to be able to pay for it. That is what this bill is doing.And I just want to answer the question from the member who just sat down which was the question of has the Government consulted on the title of the bill? It is not normal Government practice to consult on titles of bills."