PENALTY UNITS BILL 2009 Explanatory Statement

Northern Territory Explanatory Statements

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PENALTY UNITS BILL 2009

2009

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF THE
NORTHERN TERRITORY

MINISTER FOR JUSTICE AND ATTORNEY-GENERAL

SERIAL NO. 44

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

PENALTY UNITS BILL 2009

GENERAL OUTLINE

The purpose of this Bill is to repeal and replace the Penalty Units Act so as to provide:

(a) for a penalty unit to have the value of $130; and

(b) that the Minister must, for each year commencing on 1 July, review the nominal value for a penalty unit accordance with the Darwin consumer price index;

(c) that, if the nominal value increases by one or more dollars, a regulation must be made increasing the actual value of a penalty unit to the nearest whole dollar (rounded down); and

(d) that, for an offence, the time of the offence determines what is the penalty unit value that is to applied in respect of that offence; and

(e) that the current Penalty Units Act applies to all offences alleged to have been committed prior to the commencement of the Penalty Units Act 2009.

NOTES ON CLAUSES

Clause 1. Short title.

This is a formal clause which provides for the citation of the Bill. The Bill when passed may be cited as the Penalty Units Act 2009.

Clause 2. Commencement.

This Bill commences on a date fixed by the Administrator, notified by Gazette.

Clause 3 Definitions

This clause contains definitions of:

· penalty – is defined so that it includes all penalties (ie ordinary criminal penalties, civil penalties and infringement notice penalties)
· prescribed amount: this means $130 or such other amount as is prescribed in regulations

Clause 4 Monetary amount of penalty

This clause provides that where the penalty for an offence or a fine or penalty that may be imposed under an Act is expressed as a number of penalty units then the value of the penalty or fine is that number of penalty units multiplied by the prescribed amount, unless there is a contrary intention in the Act.

Clause 5 Indexation of monetary value of penalty unit

This clause provides for an annual review mechanism based on a formula to be applied each financial year from 1 July 2010.

This mechanism uses the Darwin Consumer Price Index (CPI) from the calendar year immediately preceding the commencement of the financial year of the review. This takes account for inflation since the previous penalty unit review. The effect of inflation will be determined by comparing the average of the CPI for each of the quarters in the year preceding the time of the review compared to 161.5 (being the average of the CPI for each of the yearly quarters of 2008).

If the value yielded by this calculation is an increase to the previous value but is not a multiple of $1, the amount is to be rounded down to the nearest multiple of $1. This amount is referred to as the actual value.

Clause 6 Prescribing new monetary value of penalty unit

This clause provides that if the actual value yielded by the calculation in clause 5 is an amount of $131 or a higher multiple $1 that amount must be prescribed by regulation, as the new value of the penalty unit. This means an increase of less than $1 would not result in a change to the penalty unit value.

A regulation that increases the prescribed amount has no effect until it has been notified in the Gazette notice and takes effect. When the regulation takes effect it only applies to penalties for offences that were committed prior to the increased value taking effect. For other offences the former actual amount will continue to apply.

Clause 7 Regulations

The clause gives the Administrator a general regulation making power under the Act. This Regulation making power needs to be read with sections 60-66 of the Interpretation Act. This section spells out what regulations can be made under such a power.

Clause 8 Repeal

This clause provides for the repeal of the current Penalty Units Act (comprising the Penalties Act 1999 and Penalties Amendment Act 2002).

Clause 9 Transitional arrangements

This clause provides that the repealed Penalty Units Act continues to apply to offences committed prior to the commencement of the Penalty Units Act 2009.

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