RLC in the media

Thousands of Covid-19 fines worth millions of dollars could be ruled invalid if two Sydneysiders win a landmark test case in the New South Wales Supreme Court.

The validity of COVID-19 fines issued across NSW will be called into question in a court case that has the potential to invalidate millions of dollars worth of penalty notices issued during the state’s lockdowns.

Forty civil society organisations have expressed alarm at reports of police overreach in preemptive policing of protest, with NSW police conducting covert surveillance and a raid on climate activists north of Sydney on Sunday.

New South Wales residents owe $1 billion to the state government because of unpaid fines, with more than 380,000 individuals having unpaid enforceable debt with Revenue NSW.

The gap in inequality between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is depressingly vast in the legal and justice system.

New penalties have been introduced for protesters who block major traffic and infrastructure in NSW.

In November 2021 the NSW Ombudsman released a report revealing Revenue NSW used automated systems to unlawfully and forcibly collect debt from disadvantaged and financially vulnerable people since January 2016.

A coalition of 33 legal organisations including RLC have signed an open letter, calling on NSW finance minister Damien Tudehope to introduce a four-month pause on enforcement action on COVID fines, to support people already experiencing vulnerabiliy.

More than 7000 people have applied to Revenue NSW to overturn a COVID-19 fine but only one in 10 appeals were successful, a new freedom of information request obtained by RLC has revealed. 

Lawyers have launched a class action investigation into what they believe could be hundreds of “unlawful” strip searches by New South Wales Police of patrons at the Splendour in the Grass Music Festival.