Media Release
Embargoed until 00:01 a.m. (AEDT) Tuesday 22 October 2024
The Sentencing Advisory Council has today published a new report examining whether fines imposed in the Magistrates’ Court have kept pace with inflation and the changing value of a penalty unit in Victoria over the last 20 years.
Almost all criminal offences in Victoria have a maximum fine set as a particular number of ‘penalty units’. Since 2004, the Victorian Treasurer has increased the value of a penalty unit annually, the aim being to account for the changing value of a dollar in an inflationary economy. For example, the maximum fine for stopping in a no-stopping area was 3 penalty units in 2004, and it is still 3 penalty units today, but the value of a penalty unit has gradually increased from $100 to $197.59 since 2004, so the maximum fine for that offence in dollar terms has increased from $300 to $593 in the last 20 years.
The Council’s latest report examines whether the values of fines imposed in the Magistrates’ Court have changed over time to reflect the changing value of a penalty unit and the changing values of maximum fines for offences in Victoria. To do this, the Council identified the 30 offences that most commonly received a fine in the 19 years to 30 June 2023, and analysed whether the values of fines for those offences were changing over time.
Some of the key findings in the report include:
- There were over 2 million offences that received a fine in the Magistrates’ Court in the 19-year period.
- For 7 of the 30 offences examined, the average fine amount seemed to largely keep pace with inflation. Most of those offences were traffic offences (e.g. stopping in a no-stopping area) and animal-related offences (e.g. failing to register a dog or cat).
- For 23 of the 30 offences examined, the average fine amount did not seem to keep pace with inflation, being slightly or significantly below what would have been expected. For example, the most common offence sentenced in Victoria is driving with a suspended licence – it was the most serious offence in 9% of Magistrates’ Court cases in the decade to 30 June 2022. The median fine for that offence was $500 every year from 2004–05 to 2022–23. That means the real value of fines for that offence declined by 37%, from $500 to $313 (based on the value of a dollar in 2004–05).
- Average fine values tended to track inflation closely for offences that can be (and often are) dealt with by way of an infringement notice in particular.
Quotes Attributable to Sentencing Advisory Council Director Stan Winford
‘This report is the first review of the effect of penalty unit indexation on court fine amounts since indexation began in 2004. We found that fine amounts for some offences are increasing over time to keep pace with inflation, but others aren’t. This raises some challenging issues.
‘On the one hand, fine amounts for some offences haven’t changed for over 20 years, meaning their real value has significantly declined because the value of a dollar has changed considerably in that time. One of the purposes of imposing a fine is to deter similar offending in the future – if the values of fines are declining, then arguably they are also losing some of their effectiveness as a deterrent.
‘On the other hand, it would be difficult for sentencing courts to apply incremental changes to fine amounts each year, and reflect minor adjustments in the value of a penalty unit. Sentencing is more complex than that. It involves courts balancing many considerations to determine a sentence that is appropriate in the circumstances of each case, the maximum penalty being just one of those considerations.’
About the Sentencing Advisory Council
The Council is an independent statutory body established in 2004. It has a number of legislative functions, including conducting research on sentencing, consulting on sentencing matters, publishing sentencing statistics, and advising the Attorney-General on sentencing matters.
