Children in New South Wales deserve a fairer fines system. Children experiencing disadvantage are disproportionately impacted by fines in NSW. Redfern Legal Centre worked alongside other legal organisations to advocate on the issue of COVID-19 fines. Our work, as well as a report by several legal academics, demonstrated the disproportionate impact COVID fines had on ...
Redfern Legal Centre
Improving the fines system for children in New South Wales

GOAL
$30,000
Field of Interest
- Individual/family services and support
- Social inclusion and justice
Target Population
- Young people (6-25)
- People experiencing socio-economic disadvantage or vulnerability

Redfern Legal Centre (RLC) is a non-profit community legal centre that provides access to justice. Established in 1977 and inspired by the inception of the Aboriginal Legal Service in Redfern, Redfern Legal Centre was the first community legal centre in NSW and the second in Australia. We provide free legal services and education to people experiencing disadvantage. We draw on our frontline, grassroots work with the community to create positive change through policy and law reform work to address inequalities in the legal system, policies and social practices that cause disadvantage.
We provide effective and integrated free legal services that are client-focused, collaborative, non-discriminatory and responsive to changing community needs. Our specialist legal services focus on tenancy, credit, debt and consumer law, financial abuse, employment law, international students, First Nations justice, police accountability, and we provide outreach services including through our health justice partnership.
Project Summary
Children in New South Wales deserve a fairer fines system. Children experiencing disadvantage are disproportionately impacted by fines in NSW.
Redfern Legal Centre worked alongside other legal organisations to advocate on the issue of COVID-19 fines. Our work, as well as a report by several legal academics, demonstrated the disproportionate impact COVID fines had on children in NSW.
Fines are disproportionately issued to communities and children experiencing disadvantage, including children with cognitive impairments, and children experiencing socio-economic disadvantage, homelessness, or unsafe home environments. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are also disproportionately fined.
There is an urgent need for reform to the NSW fines system as it applies to children. Penalty notices are excessively punitive, discriminatory, and an ineffective mechanism for sanctioning the behaviour of children. We believe that change is needed and that this change will bring about benefit not just for young people but for the whole community.
We will coordinate a collaborative campaign to advocate for best practice reform of the fines system for children in New South Wales.
Our strategy includes:
– Coalition Building: Partnering with key legal and community organisations to advocate for systemic change.
– Direct Engagement: Working closely with communities disproportionately impacted by fines to understand their needs and advocate for their rights.
– Legal and Policy Reform: Leveraging our expertise in policy advocacy and legal representation to influence and reform laws, policies and practices.
This campaign will protect the rights of children and benefit the whole community in NSW.
Project Outcomes
We will provide assistance to children and their families and drive a campaign for systemic reform of the fines system on a state-wide basis.
We will focus on provide holistic, culturally safe assistance to children and their families in areas where the highest fines are issued to children, which include the Western suburbs of Sydney and regional towns with high First Nations populations. We will assist children through fine clinics, to provide information, advice and representation to children who have been issued with fines, which will form part of the evidence base for reform of the fines system for children in NSW.
Drawing on our experience of working with children and fines, and consultation with the sector, we believe we can create positive change on this issue. This project will drive positive reform to law, policy and procedures that provide future safeguards to ensure children are protected from costly fines.
Through improved public awareness of inequity in the current fines system, better public access to date regarding fines issued to children and a campaign targeted at key decision makers in government, we will achieve a reduction in the number and value of fines issues to children, and an improved fines system that applies equitably to children.
This will lead to an increased likelihood that young people will be diverted from the criminal justice system, and increased wellbeing for children, young people and their families by alleviating the mental and financial stress caused by fines.
Budget Breakdown
TOTAL BUDGET: $60,000
FUNDING
Funding source | Amount |
---|---|
Redfern Legal Centre (confirmed) | $30,000 |
Funding gap (unconfirmed) | $30,000 |
EXPENSES
Expense item | Amount |
---|---|
Lawyer salary plus oncosts one day a week for 12 months | $26,611 |
Design, printing, other administrative costs for advocacy work | $3,389 |
Lawyer salary plus oncosts one day a week for 12 months | $26,611 |
Travel for clinics, factsheets, other administrative costs for fines clinic work | $3,389 |
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