‘Criminalising poverty’: Research argues tying speeding fines to income

Flat-rate speeding fines “criminalise poverty”, with Australian research making a bold call for an overhaul.

A $200 speeding fine in the midst of substance abuse issues and a mental health struggle was effectively crippling for Aran O’Connell.

He copped the fine in 2021, and his inability to pay meant his debt to the state simply grew and grew, hampering his attempts to get healthy. Only once the Uniting Church paid the fine as part of his treatment was he free to get on with his life.

Research from the independent Australia Institute has found there is a case to be made for tying the cost of a traffic fine to an offender’s income, like Finland has been doing for 100 years.

Challenges lie in the fact the federal government keeps income data, while the states issue the speeding fines.

An Australian think tank is arguing traffic fines should be commensurate with the driver’s income. Picture: NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

The discussion paper says flat-rate traffic fines have disproportionately “devastating effects” on low-income earners and “criminalise poverty”.

The research does not analyse whether speeding fines are a deterrent, rather the effect of the financial penalty across the income spectrum.

“If fines are to be levied on drivers, they should be imposed in a manner that does not result in disproportionate financial distress to low-income earners,” the research says.

“Some evidence points to speeding being a ‘luxury crime’, meaning that high-income individuals are much more likely to be issued a speeding ticket than lower-income drivers.

“This means that the present research potentially underestimates the additional income a proportional speeding-fine system could raise, as higher income individuals would receive larger fines.”

Speeding fines already vary widely state-to-state in Australia. Picture: iStock

The death of an Indigenous woman in custody in 2014 sparked Western Australia to become the final state to scrap the practice of locking up fine defaulters.

When the law was reformed in 2020, the Aboriginal Legal Service of WA chief executive said jailing people for unpaid fines disproportionately affected Aboriginal people.

“It had a devastating and fracturing effect on children, families and communities and exacerbated the over-representation of Aboriginal people, particularly women, in the justice system by criminalising the effects of racism, poverty and disadvantage,” Dennis Eggington said.

A hamster wheel of unpaid fines, criminal convictions, losing your driver’s licence and then being less able to work and pay off fines is a common story.

Following the Finnish model, fines in Australia would vary widely.

Doing 40km/h over in NSW can invite a fine of $1172, nearly double the $620 fine in neighbouring Victoria.

Doing more than 40km/h over the limit in NSW attracts a fine nearly double the amount you would be issued in Victoria. Picture: NewsWire / Monique Harmer

A driver pinged 9km/h over the limit in NSW is charged $181. Under an “equitable” scheme, a driver in the highest income bracket would suddenly be whacked with a $471 fine. A driver in the lowest income bracket pays $32.

A top earner caught doing more than 10km/h over the limit would be fined $889.

Research in Finland discovered fines more than €200 (A$320) reduced the likelihood of reoffending in the following six months, but the deterrent apparently vanished 12 months after the ticket.

This calls into doubt the effect of speeding fines as a deterrent, so the Australia Institute research reckons steering the fines money to road maintenance and upgrades is the best way forward.

Finland has had income-based traffic fines since 1921. Picture: NewsWire / Gaye Gerard.

“As the Finnish system has been in place the longest, and is implemented using a transparent formula, it is easy to translate it to other jurisdictions,” the researchers say.

In Finland, driving less than 20km/h over the limit attracts a flat-rate fine, from $178 to $356.

But if you are caught more than 20km/h over, the “equitable” rate kicks in.

Authorities calculate your net monthly income (divided by 60 half days) and how many dependants you support. It is called a “day fine” because it was conceived as a calculation of how much money you would lose if you were in prison for a day.

Fines range from 12 times the day fine, up to 28 times the day fine.

Finland also charges a €40 victim charge that goes to victims of crime. The minimum day fine is €6, so a low income earner doing more than 20km/h over the limit is fined a minimum of €72 (A$116).

The Australia Institute researchers say Australia’s fines regimen is unfair on low-income earners. Picture: iStock

Last year, a multi-millionaire businessman was fined €121,000 (A$196,000) for doing more than 20km/h over the limit. The local 4000-capacity sporting arena is named after the businessman, and he said he hoped the fine would go towards funding health care.

Fines across Australia already vary widely. Doing 11km/h over in the Northern Territory incurs a $300 fine, double the Tasmanian penalty.

“If it abandoned the regressive system of flat-value fines for a Finnish-style system of income-dependent penalties, Australia’s traffic system would be much more equitable,” the researchers said.

They also argue the current regimen flies in the face of the justice system.

“This disparity undermines the principle of proportionality of justice, which requires the punishment for a crime should be commensurate to the severity of the offence,” the researchers said.