Northern Territory looks set to following NSW and Victoria by passing new legislation to ban private car parks from obtaining names and addresses from the state roads authority.
This issue first got attention when Wilson Parking applied for preliminary discovery to the Darwin Magistrates Court for access to the Northern Territory Motor Vehicle Registry database on Tuesday 9th June 2015, so that Wilson's could contact those who had not paid parking fines issued in the Royal Darwin Hospital car park. Wilson Parking began charging to park at the Darwin hospital earlier in 2015 and plans to use the information to match vehicles to identities so it can chase down outstanding parking fees.
However, the when the Northern Territory Transport Minister learnt of this, he was furious he was not consulted. He said that his department had decided on its own advice not to object to Wilson Parking obtaining the names and addresses and has not informed the minister.
This situation has led the Northern Territory government to rush legislation through its parliament on 17th June 2015 to block the court order issued by Darwin Magistrates court that had demanded it hand over driver data to Wilson Parking. Transport Minister Peter Chandler will introduce an amendment to the Territory's Motor Vehicles Act today to retrospectively negate the court order. He hopes the legislation will pass on the 17th. Mr Chandler said that no data had yet been handed to Wilsons and that "The proposed laws we have introduced will protect the 8500 Territorians whose details are being pursued by the car park operator" and “No information has been given to Wilson Parking to date and the retrospective laws we propose will ensure this remains the case.”
Once passed, the laws will bring the NT into line with NSW and soon Victoria, which introduced legislation into its lower house last week to bar parking operators from making data discovery orders for the government's vehicle rego holdings.
The legislation was subsequently passed and it encoded in section 137D of the Motor Vehicle Act.
Press articles about Wilson's application to the Darwin Magistrates Court.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-10/wilson-parking-wins-access-to-nt-motorists-details-mvr/6534996
Press articles about the proposed legislation
Hansard