Page 490 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 21 March 2023
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Justice—fines
MR BRADDOCK (Yerrabi) (4.51): Fines and infringement notices have been an intrinsic part of our justice system for a long time—so much so, that it is easy to overlook the question as to whether this is the best way to encourage compliance with the law. To the wealthiest people, fines are generally seen at best as an inconvenience and at worst as a part of the cost of doing business. To the least fortunate and vulnerable people, a fine can prevent them from putting food on the table—if they even have a table to begin with!
Fines can perversely incentivise committing other crimes for the simple purpose of survival. Also, as shown by robodebt, the threat of persecution can drive people to pay fines even when legally and morally they are not required to do so. Finally, where a vulnerable person fails to pay a fine for whatever reason, they can potentially be dragged through the courts, causing greater stress and financial hardship. As I have previously noted in this chamber, Australian researchers Julia Quilter and Russell Hogg have observed that:
… fines enforcement produces very real, but often hidden, hardships for the most vulnerable. Despite its familiarity and apparent simplicity and transparency, the fine is a mode of punishment that hides complex penal and social realities and effects.
It is an objective of the ACT Greens that fines, penalties and administrative systems should consider people’s capacity to pay to ensure these systems do not unfairly increase the hardship experienced by disadvantaged people.
Almost exactly twelve months ago, this Assembly passed my motion noting the evidence of disproportionate impacts that fines have on vulnerable people and the consequences for vulnerable people when they do not pay their fines for whatever reason, whilst also calling for consideration of alternative pathways to resolving minor infringements. The ACT government’s response to that motion was predicated on the idea that only the threat of losing personal funds or property can serve as a basis for incentivising good behaviour. Clearly, there is a need for deeper community consultation, contributions and creative ideas.
I thank my colleagues in the Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety for initiating the inquiry into penalties for minor offences and vulnerable people. We need to ask questions about the agencies administering fines, how their discretionary powers are being exercised and whether the systemic impacts reinforce the values of being a risk-based, constructive, proportionate and effective response.
I would like to encourage members of the community, particularly those who have experienced hardship due to fines, to make submissions for the committee’s consideration. Finally, we also need the community’s creativity, lateral thinking, and good ideas, plus also the best practices from other jurisdictions, so that we in the ACT can be confident that our legal system actually encourages compliance and not merely continues the thinking that has led us to this point.
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