Tuesday, 15 October 2002, 1:41 pm Press Release: ACT New Zealand
Unpaid Fines Skyrocket
Tuesday 15 Oct 2002 Dr
Muriel Newman Press Releases -- Crime & Justice
Labour has allowed the amount owed by criminals in unpaid
fines to increase by more than $109 million in just two
years, ACT Police Spokesman Dr Muriel Newman said
today.
The Department for Courts' annual report shows
$287.5 million of the $420.7 million in unpaid fines is
overdue, up from $220.6 million last year and $187.1
million in 2000. Six in ten fines available for
collection remained outstanding.
"This is a shocking
case of the Labour Government failing to uphold the law.
A fine is a pointless penalty if the Government doesn't
follow up and make sure the money is paid.
"For New
Zealanders to have faith in the law, we must have confidence
that penalties have weight behind them. How can victims
have peace of mind when offenders can flout the law with
the implicit approval of the Government?
"The
average time that overdue fines have been outstanding is
over three years, and the value of fines collected has
decreased.
"If Labour intends to provide true justice
for victims, it will ensure that criminal fines are
collected, and the law is upheld," Dr Newman said.
For more information visit ACT online at
http://www.act.org.nz or contact the ACT Parliamentary
Office at act@parliament.govt.nz.
If you're using Scoop for work, your organisation needs to pay a small license fee with Scoop Pro. We think that's fair, because your organisation is benefiting from using our news resources. In return, we'll also give your team access to pro news tools and keep Scoop free for personal use, because public access to news is important!
After recording a River of Freedom review the Scoop Political Podcast went into hibernation. Now with a new Government formed it’s time to dust off this forgotten silver and look at the impact this documentary, about the Wellington parliamentary protest of 2022, had on Election 23. Watched by potentially tens of thousands of voters in the weeks prior to the election River of Freedom was not likely to have won votes for the then Labour government. More
Now that he’s back as Foreign Minister, maybe Winston Peters should start reading the MFAT website which is currently celebrating the 25th anniversary of how Kiwis alerted the rest of the world to the genocide in Rwanda. How times have changed ...
In 2023, the government is clutching its pearls because senior Labour MP Damien O’Connor has dared suggest that Gaza’s civilian population - already living under apartheid and subjected to sixteen years of an illegal embargo, and now being herded together and slaughtered indiscriminately amid the destruction of their homes, schools, mosques, and hospitals - are also victims of what amounts to genocide. More
“The Human Rights Commission’s appointment of a second Chief Executive is just the latest example of a taxpayer-funded bureaucracy serving itself at the expense of delivery for New Zealanders,” says ACT MP Todd Stephenson. More
New CTU analysis of the National & ACT coalition agreement has shown the cost of returning interest deductibility to landlords is an extra $900M on top of National’s original proposal. This is because it is going to be implemented earlier and faster, including retrospective rebates from April 2023. More
Scoop has an Ethical Paywall
ACT: Call To Abolish Human Rights Commission
Public Housing Futures: Christmas Comes Early For Landlords
