Mike Kelly: Parking Association Chair on the number of parking fines going unpaid in Auckland

The Parking Association believes multiple changes are needed for chasing up unpaid fines. 

In the three years to the end of 2024, just 68% of almost $29 thousand Auckland Transport fines were paid in part or in full. 

While AT says it's not a straightforward process, Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown says he's asked for advice on making them better debt collectors. 

Association chair Mike Kelly told Mike Hosking the psychology around it is one major issue. 

He says there are lots of people who get tickets daily for repetitive offences and aren't too bothered, and the tickets end up with the Ministry of Justice. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Auckland.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
Along with many other problems. It turns out this Morning
has an issue around parking finds that aren't being paid.
Of all the tickets issued since twenty twenty one, only
sixty eight percent of them have actually been paid. The
New Zealand Parking Association chair Mike Kelly as well us
Mike morning.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Good morning, Mike Kelly.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
I'm very well indeed, thank you. That's my learnings for that.
I didn't know we had a parking association. How long
has that been around.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
I've been around for about thirty years now, so yeah,
supporting all of the councils throughout the country, private parking
operators and various equipment and system suppliers.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
The problem Well, so if you can talk from a
national point of view, so I don't bore the rest
of the nation whitlass with yet another Auckland story. The
payment of tickets. Is that an issue whennywhere outside of
Auckland or is it an urban thing or what?

Speaker 1 (00:43):
No, it's across the country. Most councils I think that
you talk to will have will had the same concerns
that we have a limited window to have our tickets
paid either directly to the Council or through using parties
like Baycorp. And then there's a imitation on how long
before we can send them to the Ministry of Justice,
which is the usually X escalation process.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Is there a cycle a psychology at play here. I
don't take it seriously, therefore I don't pay it, And
that's the bit that needs to change.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yeah, I think so. There are lots of people out
there that have hundreds of tickets, that will get tickets
every day for repetitive offenses and not be too bothered
about that at all, and they just go to the
Ministry of Justice and get added onto their des if
you like.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
And what happens to me, nothing, is it? I mean
it can go to go. I mean literally, nothing's going
to happen to me, is it.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
That's probably more a question for the Ministry of Justice,
because once it's been sent to them, it's out of
the road controlling authority's hands. So yeah, it's you know,
it is up to them to try and enforce that
on our behalf. And it's not a cheap process to
engage them as a defllection option.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
So they need to chase it up harder. And if
they chase it up, harder they might get to mection.
The problem you've got is the antagonism, haven't you, Because
I'll get these tickets from bus lanes and cycle lanes
and I hate them, and i hate the people who
did them to me, and I'm angry, and so therefore
I'm not going to pay them.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Yeah, there's a piece of that too, And I mean
some of the things that we have to do also
is to move the legislation forward and be a bit
more current. You know, for example, we're required by law
to either place a parking ticket on a windshield or
send it in the post, as subianly sh applies to
councils rather than the private operators. Because in the lend
in the registration system for your vehicle, there is no email,

(02:31):
there is no verification of the data, and nobody actually
verifies your address or verifies that if I sell my
vehicle to you, you know, if you don't actually sign
the piece of paper say I've purchased that vehicle, it
sits at limbo, and of course we can't find out
who actually is responsible for that ticket exactly.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
All right, Mike, good on sight. I appreciate it very much.
Mike Kelly who's the New Zealand Parking Association Chair.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
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