Submission to Remaking of Fines Regulations

VCOSS appreciates the opportunity to provide feedback to the Department of Justice and Community Safety (the Department) on government proposals to reform the Infringement Regulations 2016 and Fines Reform Regulations 2017.

We understand that, in initiating this process, a key objective for the Victorian Government is to minimise the costs of operating the fines system. From VCOSS’ perspective, this should not come at the expense of people already experiencing socio-economic disadvantage.

As it stands, Victoria’s fines system is not fair or equitable. The proposed increases to late fees will exacerbate financial hardship and psychological harm for people who are already experiencing significant vulnerability. That’s because people who face disadvantage are those most likely to have unpaid fines and be most affected by added penalties and enforcement actions.

These are the key regulatory impacts that the government should consider in this process.

To this end, VCOSS does not support the proposed Regulations which seek to increase late fees for fine recipients who are unable to pay their fines by the determined due date.

We also note that these fee hikes are being proposed at a time when more Victorians than ever are unable to afford the essentials – with some households skipping meals and foregoing healthcare and medicines to pay rising rents and energy bills.

VCOSS’ core recommendation is for the Victorian Government to abandon the proposed fee increases and to implement concessional exemptions for fee payments.

We also note the proposed Regulations include amendments aimed at providing clearer information to fine recipients. While VCOSS is supportive of these changes, our submission details further opportunities to ensure fine recipients receive plain language information early, ensuring they know where to go for support and the options available to them.

Finally, in this submission we detail the importance of the Victorian Government providing additional funding to community legal centres, Victoria Legal Aid, and financial counsellors to enable services to meet the increase in demand resulting from changes to referral information on correspondence.

More broadly, we urge the government to work with the social and community sector (including the community legal sector and financial counselling sector) to institute a broader suite of fairer fines reforms.

The current punishment and deterrence model does not work. It fails to recognise that some groups have no or limited capacity to pay fines, or how they get trapped in the system in the first place. The system needs to reflect a greater understanding of disadvantage and vulnerability; be simpler to navigate; and have better hardship provisions. The community sector stands ready to work with government to design a fairer and better system.