- Jun 22, 2008
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I've been mulling this one over for a couple of weeks deciding if I'd put it up for discussion. Here it is, but first a bit of back ground.
For something I may have vaguely heard of before, I came across two instances within a matter of weeks, one involving me and the other a work colleague, of losing, or potentially losing your licence for the non payment of fines that have absolutely nothing to do with your conduct on our roads. Both related to WA so not sure if it's the same across the board.
My work colleague, lives south of Perth and does fifo work with me. He and his wife along with their 3 young children moved into their new house at a time that coincided with the WA state election. With all of the upheaval, he forgot to vote and hadn't gotten around to updating himself on the electoral roll plus a lot of other things. When he did finally getting around to updating his address quite a while later, one of the first things he received (the day that he flew out for work) was a notice in the mail to say that his licence had been suspended due to non-payment of a fine and the subsequent increase in penalties.
He now had quite a sizeable amount to pay before they would reinstate his licence and he couldn't afford to pay it, not all at once anyway. He was going to have to arrange a payment plan with them if they'd let him and he couldn't get it done until he flew back into Perth. In the meantime it had got around work that he didn't currently have a licence and the bosses got wind of it and called him in. He went within a bee's dick of losing his job.
I had quite a heated discussion with a mutual work colleague (this other guy's back to back) about it and he was adamant that if he'd voted or paid the fine in the first instance none of this would be happening. I said irrespective of that, the potential implication for this bloke in not voting was that he could have lost his job. He would have gone from a family man with a large mortgage that he was just barely managing to pay, who pays $35k+ tax per year and shops and makes use of many goods and services to someone who relied on welfare to get by, all for not paying a small fine for not voting.
From net tax payer to a drain on the now smaller public purse.
I moved back to Victoria with my family in December. We live in a rental atm, I signed the lease for it last September but had my sister in law and her boyfriend house sitting it for 3 months.
When I signed the lease, I mentioned to the landlord that there was no mailbox. He actually had one in the boot of his car and put it in that afternoon. I left a couple of days later to fly back to WA happy in the knowledge that we had a mailbox.
Fast forward a month and I buy myself a brand new trailer in Kalgoorlie, with 12mths rego paid for, it set me back almost $6k. I hooked it up and towed it back up to my then home in Leinster. We were buying all new in Victoria so I wanted the trailer to take back tools, outside implements and personal effects, all of the larger stuff would get flogged off.
The time came, my family flew over from WA to Vic while I drove with the cat, towing the loaded trailer. We're settled back in Vic and everything's going fine. One thing we had noticed though was that we weren't getting any mail, not even junk mail. I flew back out to WA mid Jan to go back to work doing a 2/1 roster. Three days into my swing, my wife rings up, she's been into the post office asking about mail deliveries, the manager in the post office tells her that we don't have a mail box, wife says we've had one for 4 months, where's our mail? We've been holding it for a month and then returning it to sender. Why hasn't it been getting delivered? No answer. The next day mail starts getting delivered, there's a fine for me from the WA Dept of Transport, the wife scans it and send it to me.
There is a bill for $150 plus $100 penalty on top for not transferring the trailer I purchased in Kalgoorlie into my name. I have since re-registered the trailer in Vic and sold it. It says that it's my final notice and if I don't pay, my licence is going to be suspended. I rang up the place that I'd purchased the trailer from and asked why they hadn't submitted the transfer papers that I'd filled out at point of sale. No answer. I ring WA Department of Transport and explain it to them, they sympathise, but bad luck, pay up or have your licence suspended. I paid up.
Again, if my wife hadn't have gone into the post office and asked the question, I probably would have had my licence suspended and been none the wiser which would have obviously created all sorts of problems for me if I was pulled over and had a licence checked or again as with my work colleague, it would have seriously jeopardised my job security. As someone who is 50 this year with a young family, I'm under no illusions, if I had lost my job over my licence, I would have seriously been up shite creek without a paddle and absolutely struggled to get anything even near to what I do now.
From a net taxpayer of around $45k a year to a big drain on the public purse.
I may be in the minority here, but for me, taking someone's licence off them for non-payment of non driving related offences and putting their livelihood in jeopardy is absolutely ridiculous. Do they actually think about his when setting penalties?
What do you think, fair enough or over the top?
For something I may have vaguely heard of before, I came across two instances within a matter of weeks, one involving me and the other a work colleague, of losing, or potentially losing your licence for the non payment of fines that have absolutely nothing to do with your conduct on our roads. Both related to WA so not sure if it's the same across the board.
My work colleague, lives south of Perth and does fifo work with me. He and his wife along with their 3 young children moved into their new house at a time that coincided with the WA state election. With all of the upheaval, he forgot to vote and hadn't gotten around to updating himself on the electoral roll plus a lot of other things. When he did finally getting around to updating his address quite a while later, one of the first things he received (the day that he flew out for work) was a notice in the mail to say that his licence had been suspended due to non-payment of a fine and the subsequent increase in penalties.
He now had quite a sizeable amount to pay before they would reinstate his licence and he couldn't afford to pay it, not all at once anyway. He was going to have to arrange a payment plan with them if they'd let him and he couldn't get it done until he flew back into Perth. In the meantime it had got around work that he didn't currently have a licence and the bosses got wind of it and called him in. He went within a bee's dick of losing his job.
I had quite a heated discussion with a mutual work colleague (this other guy's back to back) about it and he was adamant that if he'd voted or paid the fine in the first instance none of this would be happening. I said irrespective of that, the potential implication for this bloke in not voting was that he could have lost his job. He would have gone from a family man with a large mortgage that he was just barely managing to pay, who pays $35k+ tax per year and shops and makes use of many goods and services to someone who relied on welfare to get by, all for not paying a small fine for not voting.
From net tax payer to a drain on the now smaller public purse.
I moved back to Victoria with my family in December. We live in a rental atm, I signed the lease for it last September but had my sister in law and her boyfriend house sitting it for 3 months.
When I signed the lease, I mentioned to the landlord that there was no mailbox. He actually had one in the boot of his car and put it in that afternoon. I left a couple of days later to fly back to WA happy in the knowledge that we had a mailbox.
Fast forward a month and I buy myself a brand new trailer in Kalgoorlie, with 12mths rego paid for, it set me back almost $6k. I hooked it up and towed it back up to my then home in Leinster. We were buying all new in Victoria so I wanted the trailer to take back tools, outside implements and personal effects, all of the larger stuff would get flogged off.
The time came, my family flew over from WA to Vic while I drove with the cat, towing the loaded trailer. We're settled back in Vic and everything's going fine. One thing we had noticed though was that we weren't getting any mail, not even junk mail. I flew back out to WA mid Jan to go back to work doing a 2/1 roster. Three days into my swing, my wife rings up, she's been into the post office asking about mail deliveries, the manager in the post office tells her that we don't have a mail box, wife says we've had one for 4 months, where's our mail? We've been holding it for a month and then returning it to sender. Why hasn't it been getting delivered? No answer. The next day mail starts getting delivered, there's a fine for me from the WA Dept of Transport, the wife scans it and send it to me.
There is a bill for $150 plus $100 penalty on top for not transferring the trailer I purchased in Kalgoorlie into my name. I have since re-registered the trailer in Vic and sold it. It says that it's my final notice and if I don't pay, my licence is going to be suspended. I rang up the place that I'd purchased the trailer from and asked why they hadn't submitted the transfer papers that I'd filled out at point of sale. No answer. I ring WA Department of Transport and explain it to them, they sympathise, but bad luck, pay up or have your licence suspended. I paid up.
Again, if my wife hadn't have gone into the post office and asked the question, I probably would have had my licence suspended and been none the wiser which would have obviously created all sorts of problems for me if I was pulled over and had a licence checked or again as with my work colleague, it would have seriously jeopardised my job security. As someone who is 50 this year with a young family, I'm under no illusions, if I had lost my job over my licence, I would have seriously been up shite creek without a paddle and absolutely struggled to get anything even near to what I do now.
From a net taxpayer of around $45k a year to a big drain on the public purse.
I may be in the minority here, but for me, taking someone's licence off them for non-payment of non driving related offences and putting their livelihood in jeopardy is absolutely ridiculous. Do they actually think about his when setting penalties?
What do you think, fair enough or over the top?
