By Jessica Micallef
Eleven parking infringement penalties in Hume have been reduced as part of a council review.
While most penalty rates for parking offences are set within the Road Safety Rules 2017, the council has the freedom to chose the penalty amount for 11 road safety offences including parking for a period longer than indicated, failing to pay and obey instructions on a sign, stopping on a bicycle parking area and not parking within a bay.
At a meeting last month the council reduced penalties for parking offences from $50 and $83 to $33.
Cr Joseph Haweil said parking infringements were a “regressive form of parallel taxation”.
“Parking infringements … negatively impact the most socio-economically disadvantaged people in our society,” he said.
“Infringements are intended to be issued for minor breaches of the law to negate the need to go through court processes.
“In practice however, they do the opposite.”
Cr Haweil said parking infringements “flooded” community legal centres with residents seeking help to deal with their fine.
“Where infringements are unpaid, they result in added penalties and fees which continue to accumulate,” he said.
“If authorities seek to enforce them in the courts, this then adds another layer of fees and charges, burying people in debts they may not even know they have accumulated.
“The state government has given us the power to determine what we think is appropriate as a penalty.
“By reducing the penalties we apply to these 11 offences in Hume, we ensure that the issuing of an infringement continues to send the message of deterrence but without unfairly and unnecessarily being punitive and excessive in the penalty.”
