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There are calls for the New South Wales government to withdraw the more than 29,000 outstanding COVID fines after a judgment from the Supreme Court.

The New South Wales government is being urged to withdraw more than 29-thousand remaining COVID fines.

Samantha Lee, Redfern Legal Centre’s police accountability solicitor, speaks on ABC Drive about the recent NSW Supreme Court judgment on covid fines.

The New South Wales government has been urged to withdraw more than 29,000 remaining Covid-19 fines after the Supreme Court found fundamental flaws in the way they were issued.

A Supreme Court judgment could invalidate all Covid-19 fines after a state’s revenue department backed down on thousands of penalty notices.

Today the NSW Supreme Court published its reasons in a test case about COVID-19 fines. The decision clarifies the requirements necessary for a fine to be valid, and calls into disrepute all the remaining 29,017 COVID-19 fines that have not been withdrawn.

Police are conducting more than 150,000 body searches annually across NSW, with children and Indigenous people more likely to be stopped and interrogated.

Revenue NSW has conceded that many COVID-19 fines are invalid. But what does that mean for the rest of the community who may have received or paid fines? 

The NSW government has conceded that two COVID-19 fines being challenged in a Supreme Court test case are invalid, opening the door for more than 30,000 other people to have fines worth $30 million cancelled.

This criminal offence could end up retraumatising victim survivors and criminalising people who are most in need of protection, say RLC's Gayatri Nair.