I got two emails from Revenue NSW on Monday. They both said: “Your penalty notice is due on 07 May. To avoid $65 in late charges, pay $673 by one of the below methods by 07 May or for other options to finalise your fine visit our website http://www.revenue.nsw.gov.au/fines/pn.”
Geez it riles me that Revenue NSW sent reminders about paying my penalty notice, but NOTHING when I forgot to pay my rego.
Revenue NSW also emailed me about a month ago to dismiss my appeal against paying the penalty notices for driving an unregistered vehicle and not having a validated green slip.
It informed me that “driving an unregistered vehicle is illegal and potentially dangerous”.
Yes it is. That’s why I don’t understand Revenue NSW being so assiduous when it comes to fining people, but so lax about letting them inadvertently drive around illegally for months.
It’s particularly confounding that the Service NSW website has been set up so email and SMS notifications that your rego payment is late have been turned off by default … but NOT the ones for notifications that your fine for failing to pay your rego is due ….
As I noted in a previous blog post, I agree with a bloke called Steven Morris, who got pinged for making the same mistake as me last year. He told The Sydney Morning Herald: “They have my email, phone and home address. With three options to contact me, you would think they would have taken one of those opportunities rather than leaving it until my car goes completely out of registration and now we have to get a blue slip and give our number plates back and start from square one.
“If we had an accident and hurt someone we would have been uninsured – it could be a life-or-death thing rather than just an admin thing.”
I’d still like to know why the NSW government is putting the future of so many people and their families at risk. I was lucky not to have an accident while I was unwittingly driving an unregistered car. What if someone like me DOES have an accident?
The other thing that narks me is how holier than thou people who DID remember to pay their rego are about the 170,000+ people who’ve unintentionally forgotten over the past six years.
A friend kindly shared my blog post – called “Such A Dangerous Rort” – on their Facebook page to spread awareness and I was totally caned in the comments.
One person wrote: “Surely at some point people have to take responsibility for their own affairs? Is it really up to the government to be wasting taxpayers money sending reminders? Don’t people usually complain that we’re a nanny state??”
I think she’s completely missed the point that 170,000+ people have forgotten to pay in six years. So bully for everyone who didn’t forget, but 170,000+ people have been obliviously driving around in uninsured vehicles. And that seems like a dangerous problem to me.
Do all those people really deserve to be potentially bankrupted by a car accident, just because it would waste taxpayers’ money to send an automated email … actually, would an automated email cost the taxpayers anything?
Anyway, it’s paid and I’m $1344 poorer and I’ll stop ranting about it now.
In other grumpy news, click here for an update on day two of Kathleen Folbigg taking the stand.
Song of the day: Alanis Morissette & James Corden “Ironic”
housegoeshome 
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