New South Wales, Australia: The New South Wales government has been forced to cancel more than $30 million in fines for violations of COVID-era public health guidelines after recognizing that they were imprecise.
The decision was made in a case before the Supreme Court, which argued that two fines issued during 2021 lockdown were invalid because the cases did not adequately describe the alleged offence.
Revenue NSW, the Administrative Division for collecting taxes in NSW, declared that it had cancelled some 33,000 COVID-era fines, about half of the total penalties imposed by police for violations of the public health guidelines during the pandemic limitations in 2020 and 2021.
Ms. Samantha Lee, Acting Principal Solicitor at Redfern Legal Centre which brought the case, stated that the decision was an “extraordinary day for the people of NSW”.
This case has set a precedent that all of those fines are invalid and should never have been issued. What has happened today is pure justice, and really it is a case for the people.
Ms. Samantha Lee shared.
A total of 33,121 fines will be withdrawn, which is roughly half of the 62,138 COVID-19-related fines that were issued in total.
According to Ms. Karly Warner, Chief Executive of the Aboriginal Legal Service, Aboriginal people were unfairly and unequally affected by the penalties, with some losing their driver’s licenses because they were unable to pay, which restricted their capacity to work and take care of children.
According to Ms. Joanne Van Der Plaat, President of the Law Society of NSW, the decision leaves unresolved the status of more than 29,000 fines that may impose a disproportionate burden of penalties on vulnerable and disadvantaged people.
Revenue NSW remarked in its statement that the fines were appealed on a “technical basis,” that they lacked “a sufficiently detailed description of the offence committed and are thus invalid.”