Infringement Systems in Australia

Australian Council of Social Service, Poverty Report, 2010 <http://acoss.org.au/images/uploads/ACOSS_poverty_report_October_2010.pdf>

Gardiner Ashley , ‘Station guards get super powers’, Herald Sun (Melbourne), 19 August 2011, 9.

This article is the first of a number of papers proposed to be written pursuant to a grant from the Legal Services Board (Victoria) in 2010 in relation to the impact of unpaid fines and the infringement system. This research was initiated by some Victorian community legal centres. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors only and based on preliminary results.

Tyler Tom R. , ‘Procedural Justice, Legitimacy, and the Effective Rule of Law’ (2003) Crime and Justice: A review of research, 283–357; Tyler Tom R and Huo Yuen J , Trust in the law: Encouraging public cooperation with the police and courts (Russell Sage Foundation, 2002).

Civic Compliance Victoria, ‘The Infringements Process’ (14 September 2009), <http://online.fines.vic.gov.au/fines/Content.aspx?page=91>.

Victoria Legal Aid, A Worker's Guide to Fines (2011).

Infringements Act 2006 (Vic) s 148.

Australian Law Reform Commission (‘ALRC’), Principled Regulation: Federal Civil and Administrative Penalties in Australia, Report No 95, December 2002.

ALRC, Securing Compliance: Civil and Administrative Penalties in Federal Jurisdiction, 19 May 2002 <http://www.alrc.gov.au/sites/default/files/pdfs/publications/DP65.pdf>.

O'Malley Pat , ‘Simulated Justice: Risk, Money and telemetric Policing’ (2010) British Journal of Criminology 795–807, 804; Mazerolle Paul , 'Ticketing for public nuisance offences in Queensland (Griffith University, 2010) 15.

Fox Richard , ‘Criminal Justice On-the-Spot: Infringement Penalties in Victoria’ (AIC, 1995) 51

Transport Act 1930 (NSW); Traffic Act 1949 (Qld); Police Act Amendment Act 1938 (SA); Hobart Corporation Act 1954 (Tas); Traffic Act 1919 (WA) byway of a 1955 amendment.

Fox , above n 11, 245.

Road Traffic (Infringement) Act 1965 (Vic); Traffic Act 1909 (NSW) by a 1961 amendment; Traffic Act (Amendment) Act 1960 (Qld); Traffic Act 1925 (Tas) by a 1971 amendment, Road Traffic Act 1972 (WA).

Auditor-General Vic Report, Withdrawal of Infringement Notices (2009) 13.

Transport Act 1983 (Vic); Transport Administration Act 1988 (NSW); Transport Operations (Passenger Transport) Act 1994 (Qld); Metropolitan Transport Act 1954 (Tas) by way of a 1988 amendment; Public Transport Authority Act 2003(WA); Expiation of Offences Act 1987 (SA).

Fox , above n 11, 245.

Howard Colin , Strict Responsibility (Sweet & Maxwell, 1963) 72–73.

Ibid.

Reported in Fox , above n 11, 264.

Ibid 252.

Ibid 265.

Victorian Attorney-General, Annual Report on the Infringements System 2009–10, 3.

Auditor-General Report, above n 15.

Ibid 13.

Attorney-General Report, above n 23, 3–4.

Summary Offences and Control of Weapons Amendment Act 2009, s 13, 14, 17A.

Summary Offences and Control of Weapons Amendment Act 2009, s 6.

Farrell James , ‘All the Right Moves? Police ‘move-on’ powers in Victoria’ (2009) 34(1) Alternative Law Journal 21–26.

Vagrants, Gaming and Other Offences Act 1931, s 7AA, which then became Summary Offences Act 2005, s 6.

Walsh Tamara , ‘Poverty, Police and the Offence of Public Nuisance’ (2008) 20(2) Bond Law Review 1.

Victoria , Parliamentary Debates, House of Assembly, 5 May 2011, 72 (Robert Clark, Attorney-General).

Slapper Gary , ‘Pay-as-you-Go Street Justice’ (2010) 74(1) Journal of Criminal Law 1–3.

Halligan-Davis Gavin and Spicer Keith , ‘Piloting “on the spot penalties” for disorder: Final results from a one-year pilot’ (UK Home Office Research, 2004) 2.

Crawford Adam , ‘Governing through anti-social behaviour: Regulatory challenges to criminal justice’ (2009) 49 British Journal of Criminology 810–831, 821. This is also supported by: Scottish Government, ‘A Review of Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) for Anti-Social Behaviour’ (2009) 3.

Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 (UK).

Home Office, United Kingdom, 2003.

Squires Peter , ‘New Labour and the politics of antisocial behaviour’ (2006) 26 Critical Social Policy 144–168, 146.

Brown Alison P , ‘Anti-social behaviour, crime control and social control’ (2004) 43(2) The Howard Journal, 203–211, 210.

Crofts Thomas & Witzleb Normann , ‘“Naming and Shaming” in Western Australia: Prohibited Behaviour orders, publicity and the decline of youth anonymity’ (2011) 35 Criminal Law Journal, 34–46, 35.

Ibid 37.

ALRC, ‘Securing Compliance: Civil and Administrative Penalties in Federal Jurisdiction’ 19 May 2002, Discussion Paper 65, <http://www.alrc.gov.au/dp-65>.

Fox, above n 11, 285; O'Malley, above n 10, 804; Ministry of Justice, 'Increasing the Effectiveness of the Infringements System, Cabinet Policy Committee, New Zealand (2006) 4.

Walsh , above n 31, 16; Tyler , above n 4; Tyler and Huo , above n 4.

Slapper , above n 33, 2.

Friedland Martin L , Securing Compliance: Seven Case Studies (University of Toronto Press 1990) 8.

Brown Richard and Rankin Murray , ‘Persuasion, penalties, and prosecution: Administrative v criminal sanctions’ in Friedland, ibid 348.

Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic) s 50.

O'Malley Pat , ‘Anonymity of electronic fines is liberating for some’ (2010) 48(4) Law Society Journal 16–17.

Walsh Tamara , ‘Won't pay or can't pay? Exploring the use of fines as a sentencing alternative for public nuisance type offences’ (2005) 17(2) Current Issues in Criminal Justice 217, 229; Lynch Philip , ‘Begging for Change: Homelessness and the Law’ (2002) 35 Melbourne University Law Review 1–16, 2.

Walsh , above n 31, 9.

Ibid 2.

Popovic Jelena , ‘Meaningless versus meaningful sentences: Sentencing the unsentenceable’ (2006) 15 Journal of Judicial Administration 190–205.

Walsh , above n 31, 4.

Irwin Judge Marshall , ‘Special Circumstances List’ (Paper presented at the Lock ‘Them’ Up? Disability and Mental Illness Aren't Crimes: Sisters Inside 4th International Conference, 17–19 May, Brisbane, 2008).

Walsh Tamara and Douglas Heather , ‘Homelessness and Legal Needs: A South Australian and Western Australian Case Study’ (2008) 29(1/2) Adelaide Law Review 359–380, 369.

The accepted ‘special circumstances’ for the purpose of infringement revocations are outlined in s 160 of the Infringement Act 2006 (Vic).

Fitzroy Legal Service Inc, ‘Demand for Advice on Fines SkyRockets’ FLS Briefs, July 2010, 7.