NSW government set to overhaul ticketless parking fine laws

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The New South Wales government is set to ban councils from issuing ticketless parking fines saying the practice is unfair. Councils collected $155 million from parking fines last year after the previous government introduced the paper-less method.

Transcript

00:00The NSW government has maintained that the ticketless parking system is incredibly unpopular

00:07amongst drivers and motorists and they feel it's not necessarily fair on them either.

00:12The ticketless parking system was introduced back in 2020 by the former state government

00:17and what it meant was that parking fines became paperless.

00:21So instead of receiving a fine on your windscreen, you would receive it in the mail instead.

00:27But what this resulted in was a lot of people not realising they had actually been fined

00:31and they were, in some cases, accumulating them.

00:35So the NSW government, the current one led by Labor, had been making some headway with

00:40trying to change the system this year.

00:42Earlier this year they had actually reached out to councils and asked them to stop going

00:47ticketless and actually put in place an on-the-spot notification to let drivers and motorists

00:54know that they had indeed received a fine.

00:57Their argument was that it wasn't really working as a deterrent, so people were still going

01:02to places where they shouldn't be parking and getting fines and more and more fines

01:06and they just felt like it wasn't working anyway in terms of being ticketless.

01:11But also they just felt that the number of fines had just exploded.

01:14They said that the number of infringement notices handed out in the last financial year

01:18had increased by 50% compared to the year before.

01:21So the number of tickets and fines handed out were just exploding and they just felt

01:26that that wasn't fair to motorists and it wasn't really working.

01:28So they want to bring back the on-the-spot notification.

01:33So they actually had reached out to some councils to see if they would just bring that back

01:37and then bring back on-the-spot notifications.

01:39Here in Sydney though that was met with a little bit of pushback a few months ago.

01:43Some councils said that they didn't really want to change, they liked the ticketless

01:46parking system mostly because it meant that a lot of their staff weren't being abused

01:50as much or harassed, so it actually protected a lot of the rangers out there.

01:55But also you could see your fine, you could see it on the Service NSW app, you could access

02:00it digitally, not just in the mail.

02:02With that said though, the NSW Government is holding firm on this particular issue.

02:06They really want to reform this particular ticketless parking fine scheme and they're

02:12seeking to introduce legislation this month in order to reform it and make it happen.

02:18New South Wales Premier Chris Mins spoke about this topic a little bit earlier this

02:22morning.

02:23If there's councils out there that are relying on ticketless parking as a revenue stream,

02:28that'll have to end.

02:29You'll have to issue the ticket and see the behaviour change.

02:32Ultimately all of these fines right across New South Wales, whether it's for parking

02:35or speeding, are about changing behaviour.

02:38We would much prefer people not commit the offence in the first place rather than try

02:42and grab rivers of gold from the pockets of families across the state.

02:47This is a common sense change.

02:49This particular legislation to be introduced by the state government will be brought in

02:55this month.

02:56It does have to undergo a parliamentary process before it's formally implemented.

02:59But the NSW Government is seeking that when you go to your car, you will see a physical

03:05notification that you have been fined.

03:08It may be the fine itself, it may be a notification that it's coming in the mail, but at the end

03:11of the day it will be there on your car to let you know.

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