SPER ME! IT’S $170M

85,000 Gold Coasters owe $2000 each in unpaid fine debts

MORE than 10 per cent of Gold Coasters owe $2000 each on average to the state debt collector – and it’s getting worse.

The 85,000 Gold Coasters being chased by the State Penalties Enforcement Registry (SPER) collectively owe $170 million.

One Glitter Strip suburb alone is among the worst in Queensland with a $20 million debt all up. The most common fines referred to SPER relate to speeding, tolling, court debts, vehicle offences, parking and other driving offences.

LNP Deputy Leader Tim Mander claimed: “The Gold Coast’s SPER bill is spiralling out of control.

“Labor has wasted an eye-watering $76 million of Queensland taxpayers’ money on this failed project,” Mr Mander said.

THE state’s debt collector is chasing 85,000 Gold Coasters for $170 million in unpaid fines.

An analysis of the State Penalties Enforcement Registry reveals Glitter Strip suburbs rate among Queensland’s worst, with residents of two postcodes owing more than $20 million each.

Overall, 85,355 people owe for 599,909 debts.

The $170m outstanding – or $2000 on average each – is $36m more than five years ago and up $3.7m in 18 months. However, the number of people owing debts has decreased in that time.

The latest figures reveal suburbs within the postcode 4207, which includes Beenleigh, Logan Village, and Yatala, have racked up a $28.5m debt, the highest in the state.

In postcode 4215, which includes Labrador and Southport, 9991 people owed $20.1m.

SPER is tasked with collecting fines imposed by the courts, State Government, local governments and other agencies such as toll companies.

At the end of May, Queenslanders owed just shy of $1.3 billion. The Queensland Treasury website says SPER collected $269.4m as at June 30, 2020 for the 2019-20 financial year.

The most common fines referred to SPER relate to speeding, tolling, court debts, vehicle offences, parking and other driving offences.

A treasury spokesman told the Bulletin earlier this year that court-imposed fines represented 16 per cent of debts referred to SPER on the Gold Coast.

LNP Deputy Leader and Shadow Treasurer Tim Mander said the State Government had “dropped the ball on debt recovery”. “The Gold Coast’s SPER bill is spiralling out of control,” he said. “Labor has wasted an eye-watering $76m of Queensland taxpayers’ money on this failed project.

“This staggering amount of money could have been used on congestion-busting projects, increasing the number of hospital beds, or investing in local schools.”

But a Treasury spokesman said the statewide rate of growth in the SPER debt pool had fallen from 8.7 per cent in 2013-14 to 1.7 per cent in the 12 months to June.

“The recent debt growth rate is below the Gold Coast’s population growth rate of an average of 2.4 per cent per year,” the spokesman said.

“It is worth noting that the data in the SPER postcode report is purely a snapshot in time and any comparisons over time will be affected by simple movements of people around the state through changing their address, payments made and new debts commenced.”

The spokesman said Queenslanders had every right to expect people to pay their fines and SPER played a critical role in that.

Last month, it was revealed SPER had stopped issuing collection notices for fines dished out since mid-March as part of its response to coronavirus.