Francisco Silva reporting in the Law Society Journal
In November 2022, the NSW Supreme Court deemed two COVID fines invalid after a case filed by Redfern Legal Centre. The ruling prompted the State Government to rescind and refund over 33,000 fines issued during lockdowns. 29,000 fines remain.
“It is our position that all the remaining 29,000 COVID fines fail to meet the legal requirements as outlined in the recent Supreme judgement and are therefore invalid,” says Samantha Lee, instructing senior solicitor at Redfern Legal Centre.
“We expected Revenue NSW to withdraw all remaining COVID fines following the Supreme Court’s judgement earlier this year, but this has not yet occurred,” Lee said.
“We all know from statistics obtained from NSW Police that COVID fines were disproportionately issued to communities with a high proportion of First Nation populations and in low socio-economic areas.” Lee continued. “It is therefore especially important that fines that are invalid are withdrawn.”
