Drivers slugged twice
Human error causes duplication of 16,000 rego notices
More than 16,000 Queenslanders have been issued duplicate vehicle registration notices in an embarrassing blunder, forcing Transport and Main Roads to cough up an estimated hundreds of thousands of dollars in refunds.
An error in October saw duplicate vehicle registration notices sent out, with 967 Queenslanders promptly paying their bills.
But the October 21 notices had already been mailed on July 21, with Department of Transport and Main Roads
saying an error at a mail house vendor contracted by the department resulted in 16,401 customers being incorrectly billed.
“(TMR) has proactively engaged with these customers and automatically refunded over 95 per cent prior to the end of November 2023,” a spokeswoman said.
But with some customers paying their bill through Australia Post, the department has been unable to automatically refund the additional 5 per cent – about 45 customers – who have now paid their vehicle registrations twice.
“TMR continues to proactively engage with any outstanding customers to prompt them to take action to have the matter resolved,” the spokeswoman said.
The department did not answer questions on how much money had to be refunded, but with a basic annual vehicle registration more than $700, it was estimated it could have been more than half a million dollars.
Newly appointed Transport Minister Bart Mellish – who replaced embattled minister Mark Bailey during the December ministerial reshuffle sparked by the resignation of Annastacia Palaszczuk – said “human error” was to blame.
Mr Mellish said TMR had undertaken an immediate review of the incident and had received assurances from the third-party provider that “measures were in place to ensure this disappointing error would not happen again”.
In September, Mr Bailey was forced to apologise when almost 2000 drivers were incorrectly given double demerit points through the government’s camera detected offence program over almost two years.
LNP cost of living spokeswoman Deb Frecklington said it was unacceptable so many Queenslanders had “received a bill from the government they didn’t have to pay” and accused the government of seeking to “blame others”.
“Queenslanders just want to know the bills they’re getting are real.”