Townsville owes more than $56m in SPER debt
Townsville residents owe the state government millions in SPER debt and a North Queensland MP says the there needs to be a crack down on collection.
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TOWNSVILLE residents owe the State Government more than $56m in fines for a slew of offences.
The city’s debt mates up almost 5 per cent of Queensland’s total State Penalties Enforcement Registry (SPER).
Opposition Police spokesman Dale Last has slammed the high SPER debt across the state, which was $1.32bn at the end of January.
“Clearly the SPER debt is totally out of control,” he said.
“This government is clueless to do anything about it.”
He said with the money owed, the state could pay for more hospitals, schools, road upgrades, police stations and more.
The fines are collected from agencies including the Department of Transport and Main Roads, Queensland Police and the Queensland courts.
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Townsville residents owed $56.509m to the government as of the end of January.
In July 2020, the city owed $47m in debts to the government. SPER data revealed more than 167,000 fines were issued to 22,115 Townsville locals in the six-months to December 2020.
The largest number of debts was owed for driving offences, with almost 30,000 people owing more than $9,800,000.
Driving offences include things like driving without a seatbelt and dangerous driving.
Mr Last said people needed to be sent straight to jail if they did not pay the debt.
“Its an obscene amount of money that has ballooned out of control,” he said.
Mr Last said the state needed to “get serious” about recouping the money.
The state government currently tries to use other enforcement methods to recoup unpaid SPER debt.
It uses licence suspension, vehicle immobilisers, seizure of property or the collection of wages or money from the bank if people with SPER debts do not pay fines.
In December, the top 10 offences for Townsville residents that owe SPER debt were driving, offender debt recovery, speeding, ‘other’, vehicle, public order offences, stealing, fraud, deception and extortion, drugs and parking.
After driving offences, the next highest unpaid debt in December was for speeding, in which 25,286 people owed $6,854,000.
In comparison, 24,665 people from Cairns owed $45,942,000 across 143,499 debts.
Across the Mackay-Issac-Whitsunday region, 14335 people owed $29,856,000 across 81,779 debts.
Originally published as Townsville owes more than $56m in SPER debt
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