{"id":87035,"date":"2024-07-15T12:24:31","date_gmt":"2024-07-15T02:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=87035"},"modified":"2024-07-15T12:24:34","modified_gmt":"2024-07-15T02:24:34","slug":"no-tap-and-a-296-whack-myki-fines-among-the-worlds-harshest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=87035","title":{"rendered":"No tap and a $296 whack: myki fines among the world\u2019s harshest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Victorians caught without a myki cop one of the highest fines for fare evasion in the world, which social welfare groups say punishes poor and vulnerable people who have often made a genuine mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fines for failing to produce a valid ticket or proof of concession entitlement increased by $8 on July 1 to $296. In comparison, the fare evasion penalty in Western Australia is $100, while in London it\u2019s equivalent to $95 and in Paris $125. In Singapore, it\u2019s just $55.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Attia Rana lost sleep when she received a fare evasion fine that she couldn\u2019t afford to pay, and says it is an unfair punishment for making an honest mistake. CREDIT: JUSTIN MCMANUS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

And if you don\u2019t pay your fine in time in Victoria, that cost can surge to more than $500 in just a couple of months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An analysis by The Sunday Age<\/em> of major transit systems globally identified just one jurisdiction that issued higher fines for fare evasion: Queensland at $322.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NSW\u2019s fare evasion fines are $200 and can be reduced to $100 for people who receive Centrelink payments, while Victoria only reduces fines for people under 18 ($99).<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Legal and welfare advocates are calling for Victoria to overhaul its fine system to recognise the disproportionate impact such large penalties have on people on low incomes or who are experiencing poverty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAn almost $300 fine has a massive impact,\u201d said Shifrah Blustein, managing lawyer at Inner Melbourne Community Legal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe see people having to choose between paying their fine or paying rent or buying medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Department of Transport and Planning issues about 90,000 fare evasion fines a year. Late fees can see a $296 penalty jump to $469 after seven weeks \u2013 and $533 after 10 weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Blustein said that unlike driving infringements, fare evasion fines had no public safety benefit and were purely aimed at protecting revenue, making them \u201cpatently excessive\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe people who can pay up-front, they just pay: it makes no real difference to them. The people who can\u2019t pay, it can have devastating, literally life-changing consequences,\u201d Blustein said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attia Rana received a fine in the mail from the Department of Transport and Planing after neglecting to touch-on when she boarded a train at Brunswick station last September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mother-of-three said she could not afford to pay the $288 penalty when it first arrived, and so it quickly ballooned with late fees to $521.60 \u2013 almost a week\u2019s salary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven when I received the first notice, I was thinking, \u2018OK this is too much \u2013 I\u2019ll have to plan for how to pay for this\u2019,\u201d Rana said of the fine, which arrived in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Extract from The Age<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And if you don\u2019t pay your fine in time in Victoria, that cost can surge to more than $500 in just a couple of months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":87040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[273,10073,47],"tags":[11501,2139,8,8751],"class_list":["post-87035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-myki","category-rail-news","tag-fines-victoria","tag-sydney","tag-victoria","tag-victorian-government"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87035"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87041,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87035\/revisions\/87041"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/87040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}