AMENDMENTS GIVE DRIVERS MORE NOTICE ABOUT SUSPENSIONS

The ACT Government is moving to amend its laws for notifying motorists when they face a licence or registration suspension for failing to pay an infringement notice penalty or court fine.

"The Government's amendments provide the road transport authority and motorists with much-needed certainty when licence or registration sanctions are taken," Chief Minister and Minister for Transport, Jon Stanhope, said today.

Last month the road transport authority made administrative changes to its procedures to address a decision by the Magistrates Court requiring the authority to give motorists ten day's notice before suspending their licences.

"This legislation deals with another aspect of the Court's decision, which found a suspension does not take effect until the driver has been served with the suspension notice," Mr Stanhope said. "The Court's finding creates practical difficulties for the road transport authority, as it would require the authority to manually track each of the thousands of notices sent every year and record when those notices are received.

"Manual tracking would add a substantial cost to the administration of driver licences and vehicle registrations in the ACT, a cost that would ultimately be passed on to other drivers or rate payers.

"To overcome this problem, the Government's amendments provide that a suspension takes effect on a particular date rather than the date when the notice is received and that date must be at least 10 days after the notice is sent."

Under the amendments, a motorist will be sent a reminder notice after the initial period for paying the infringement notice or fine, including any extensions, has expired. This will be followed by a suspension notice (for unpaid infringement notice penalties) or a fine enforcement notice (for court fines), alerting the motorist that the road transport authority is required by law to suspend their licence, or if the person does not have a licence, their vehicle registration or their right to drive in the ACT, on a specified date.
If the penalty or fine is not paid by that date, a final notice will be sent to confirm that the suspension has taken effect.

"If people have any concerns about their licence or vehicle registration, for example because of an unpaid infringement notice penalty or excessive demerit points, they can check their current status by contacting Canberra Connect on 13 22 81," Mr Stanhope said.

Media Contact:

Chantelle Lustri 6205 2775 0434 560 770 chantelle.lustri@act.gov.au
Jess Wurf 6205 0504 0411 772 700 jess.wurf@act.gov.au