this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023
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This is great. The only issue I have is the fine is a set amount, instead of a percentage of income, with a floor of a set amount. That means this regulation will overtime become less helpful
Typically the legislation doesn't say "the fine is $X". It says something more like "the fine is X penalty units", with the dollar value of one penalty unit being defined elsewhere and indexed over time. So it still has the problem of being less of an impact for wealthy people compared to lower income people, but it's not a matter of becoming less effective over time.
Not just that, but there’s two values. The one in the primary legislation, which is usually quite high (it’s what QCAT/courts can apply) and the one in the State Penalties Enforcement Regulation which is usually about 1/10th the amount, and applies to “on the spot” fines. Nothing I’ve seen says that the “on the spot” regime is required to apply in any or all cases, so the taxi drivers can still be heavily stung if QPS or TMR gets sick of issuing PINs/TINs (penalty infringement notices/transport infringement notices)