Exclusive: government rejected call by legal groups to replace Covid fines, issued to about 3,000 children, with cautions
“Our services have also received numerous reports of children in out-of-home care receiving Covid fines,” they wrote. “Many of these children were also experiencing complex, intersecting vulnerabilities, including intellectual disabilities and/or mental health conditions, trauma background, and interrupted schooling.”
The commissioner said Revenue NSW would instead seek to work more closely with vulnerable young people to help them pay off their fines, while also strengthening the review processes for those who are underage and conducting a review of outstanding debt to identify “debt that is uneconomical to pursue”.
“Is the chief commissioner suggesting a 10-year-old get a job?” Ironside said. “A child already living in poverty burdened with a debt they cannot pay further entrenches that poverty before they are even old enough to earn their own money.” More than half the children received a fine of $1,000. Seventeen children were fined $5,000 and 39 were fined $3,000.The state government has so far resisted any call to stop its enforcement of Covid fines. For both adults and children, roughly 45,000 fines issued in 2021-22 are now overdue, according to NSW government data.
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