2 June 2004
What happened to the promised court fee waivers?

Green MP Nandor Tanczos says the latest court fee increases pose questions about earlier-promised fee waivers that he will raise with the Courts Minister.

"The last round of fee increases were supposed to be mitigated by the widening of the scope for partial or total fee waivers, but I've seen no evidence that more court fees are, in fact, being waived," said Nandor, the Green Party Courts and Justice Spokesperson.

"Such waivers were supposed to ensure that people on low incomes still get access to the civil courts and yet anecdotally there does not seem to have been a shift in court practice as a result of the change in policy.

"I intend to meet with Rick Barker to raise my concerns about the increased fees and ask what evidence he has that the waiver system is actually working. If he can't confirm that waivers are being made available to the people who need them, I will be pushing to get action on the issue.

"We supposedly live under the rule of 'one law for all', but these fee increases and the apparent lack of action on waivers is further evidence that that is not the reality," said Nandor.

ENDS

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