Defiant parents a target as truancy fines increased

PARENTS who don't pay a $70 penalty for a truant child could see the fine increase tenfold.

Earlier this year, the Herald Sun revealed that from next year, parents of students who missed five days of school without good reason would be issued with a notice asking them to explain.


If the explanation is deemed unacceptable, they could face a $70 fine.

Under the changes introduced into Parliament last week, the fine could be increased up to $704 if the matter were taken to court.

Education Department spokesman Stuart Teather said there was no threshold for court action to be taken.

But "the draft guidelines suggest it would be appropriate to bring proceedings . . . where a parent has received three infringement notices in two years", he said. "This is at the discretion of the school attendance officer, and the circumstances . . . will be taken into consideration."

He said a parent who did not pay a fine would be taken to court.

Education Minister Martin Dixon said the change was aimed not at pupils wagging class but at parents who didn't send a child to school; the aim was to give them an incentive to do so.

Infringements would be a last resort. "This isn't about fining the vast majority of parents who do the right thing," he said.

A principal would decide if an excuse was acceptable.

Unacceptable excuses could include visiting friends or relatives, social or leisure activities, or unplanned holidays about which the school had not been told.

Foster parents and students in care would not be subject to a fine.

heraldsun.com.au 26 Apr 2013

The Australian legal system is designed in such a manner to discourage the masses from taking the 'system' to court.

From the article : "Under the changes introduced into Parliament last week, the fine could be increased up to $704 if the matter were taken to court.", is an example of the above mentioned policy.

Australian courts function as corporations whose purpose is to bring in revenue for the government.

The public education system is a failure, which has been documented in many news media reports and independent papers, which has been designed as such.

There is no urgency to educate the children of the masses, or to make doctors, lawyers or politicians out of them, as these positions are already reserved for the children of the ruling elite.

The objective is to make subservient uneducated 'sheeple'.

The children of the masses are dumbed down by a mind numbing curriculum that teaches how to be a social media guru, or make viral videos to obtain fame.

To the uneducated the so called 'fines' seem legitimate enough.