End of the line for $75 on-the-spot myki penalty fares

On-the-spot penalty fares for public transport users caught without a valid myki are to be abolished, in an overhaul of Victoria's fare enforcement regime.

Following a review of the system, the Andrews government will give ticket inspectors the power to issue warnings instead of automatically handing out fines.

A review found the state's transport fare enforcement regime is unfair, confusing and ineffective, Photo: Rebecca Hallas.
 

In an effort to better target repeat fare evaders, and to exercise some leniency towards people who make an honest mistake or get caught out by a system glitch, the new public transport fare enforcement system will begin next year.

It will give authorised officers the discretion to issue official warning letters to commuters before handing out a full, $223 infringement notice.

The system of on-the-spot penalties, which gives passengers the choice of paying $75 and walking away without any record of the incident, will be cancelled.

A systematic fare evader could currently pay 20 on-the-spot penalty fares in a year and still pay less than a traveller with a full-fare, yearly zone one-and-two pass. Photo: Steve Lightfoot 
 

A number of improvements to myki that make it more convenient and less confusing are also planned.

These include processing online top-ups within 90 minutes, instead of 24 hours, louder beeps and anti-glare screens on myki machines, and new, faster myki readers on trams and buses.

Jacinta Allan, the Minister for Public Transport, said very few public transport users deliberately avoided paying a fare and the overhaul sought to make it easier to do this.

A new public transport fare enforcement system will begin next year.

"The system we inherited from the former Liberal government is confusing, unfair and inequitable," Ms Allan said.

"It penalises and intimidates the most vulnerable while providing an incentive to travel without a ticket."

A review found the state's transport fare enforcement regime is unfair, confusing and ineffective, in that it perversely punishes honest commuters while rewarding deliberate fare evaders.

A systematic fare evader could pay 20 on-the-spot penalty fares in a year and still cough up less than a traveller with a full-fare, yearly zone one-and-two pass.

They would also have no record kept of their serial fare dodging.

The government's review found that "the enforcement regime is not currently targeted towards high-risk fare evaders - ie those who deliberately and repeatedly cheat the system".

"Indeed, the anonymous nature of the penalty scheme prevents identification of recidivist offenders and the availability of the $75 penalty fare makes evasion more attractive to this group."

The review found commuters often feel pressured into paying on the spot, and are falsely told they have no right to complain once they have taken that option.

The system also penalises poor people who cannot afford to pay $75 on the spot, so are hit with a $223 fine and often forced to take the matter to court.

In one case noted in the report, Stephanie, a homeless woman who lived on a Newstart allowance, was fined five times in a year, including while travelling to a soup van for a meal, and ultimately dragged through a 34-month court process.

On-the-spot penalty fares were first trialled by the former Napthine government as a way to streamline enforcement and sidestep the growing number of court challenges by people who contested their fines.

Opposition public transport spokesman David Hodgett​ slammed the 90-minute processing time for topping up myki cards.

He said the system should allow for tapping on and off with mobile phones, tablets and watches.
Mr Hodgett said the government's announcement was a fine hike.

"We wouldn't be talking about this problem if people had greater flexibility in being able to pay their fares or top up their myki card," he said.

The Magistrates Court was straining under the weight of more than 40,000 challenges to myki fines when the government began its review of fare enforcement in December, with the number of successful challenges so high that it threatened to unravel the integrity of the revenue protection regime.  

This issue, first revealed in The Age, was central to the decision to review fare enforcement.

But the review also found at least one innovation brought in by Labor, the free tram zone and zone one-and-two fare cap, have made fare compliance more complex and confusing, particularly for tourists and international students.

The new system will take effect from January 1.

theage.com.au 26 May 2016

It is very doubtful whether the corporate media will ever reveal the extent of the fraud perpetuated by the Victorian government people in government.

They have names and they can be held liable, something a 'lawyer' may never tell you or even bring up in 'court'.

You can obtain a remedy to the fraud, but it has to be done on an individual basis.

'Free' public transport voucher but what's the real cost?

You roll out of bed on what ever day you decided to get up and eventually take the arduous task of 'walking the plank' to the letter box (that's another post altogether) to see what bills await you.

On this day you do not owe any 'cash' (corporate promissory notes) to the utility companies the Australian government [unlawfully] sold out from under you.

By this time you are thanking your religious faith's supreme being creator, be it called an Allah (Moon 'God'), Elohim (Hebrew 'Gods'), Jesus (a Greek scholar marketed as the son of a 'God'?), a tree 'God' or even a bovine 'God' (how blasphemous art thou Hungry Jacks/Burger King!!! !!! !!!).

Instead you find an nice little folded up piece of coloured paper that looks like the following:

Woo Hoo !!! !!! !!! 

Free travel voucher you see.

Your inner skeptic (if you have one) may say - "nothing is for free"!

You inner inquisitive instinct (if you're not part of the herd populace)  may tell you to turn the pages and see what's on the inside.

Lo and behold!!! - You see 2 (two) free travel vouchers.

Your eagle eye notices that you MUST provide your name and other personal details to obtains your two free trips.

Your internet connected fridge may tell you that this journey will be of a value of $1.95, as you are subject to a concession price.

Referencing your fridge browser to: http://ptv.vic.gov.au/tickets/metropolitan-myki-fares-2016/

What you are aware of is that this sum is deducted from your c'est que vie trust.

Bit of a bugger that the corporation conglomerate government does not tell you this - WHEN YOU ARE BORN !!! !!! !!!

Also note that all your movements are to be logged, monitored and later modified, as they are supposed to be on a penal colony.

Do not make the mistake that (in law) this is a 'free country'.

I don't trust ABS with my personal data: ex-ABS staffer

A former Bureau of Statistics insider says he will risk prosecution rather than trust the bureau with his personal data.

Former Australian Bureau of Statistics public servant Ross Hamilton says the body is no longer a trustworthy institution. Photo: Elesa Kurtz

Former ABS public servant Ross Hamilton says the bureau is no longer the trustworthy institution many Australians believe it is and he is prepared to face the full force of the law rather than participate in the 2016 census.

The Canberra resident says the ABS engaged in a dodgy process to obtain the unprecedented power to retain personal information gathered in the census to be taken in August and its promises that the data will only be held temporarily are worthless.

Since 1961, all names, addresses and other identifying information supplied in census forms have been destroyed once all the other data was saved.

But this year will be different with the ABS claiming its plan to keep the identifying data will enable "a richer and dynamic statistical picture of Australia".


Privacy activists have already warned of the dangers of retaining information, despite Chief Statistician David Kalisch insisting that names and addresses will be stored securely and separately from other census data.

Now Mr Hamilton has added his voice to the protests, writing to Mr Kalisch and demanding answers about the bureau's claims that collected data would be over-written in four years.

"If the personal identifier address data-sets are to be over-written or replaced by data-sets from the 2020 census and so on, then to claim the retention of the 2016 data as only temporary is in fact a load of rubbish as it would have become continuing, updated data-sets," Mr Hamilton said.

​The former ABS-staffer added that the bureau's hard-won reputation for excellence had taken a battering in recent years.

"Several quarters ago, the ABS had to admit that it was using inappropriate seasonality factors in its labour data, making its seasonal data frankly useless," he said.

"The ABS that I knew and worked in would not have gone down that path, producing gibberish data via use of outdated methodology.

"Something has gone seriously wrong."

"This pattern of ABS behaviour which obviously comes from the highest levels of the ABS is such that I can no longer believe the ABS may be trusted with data such as retention of household personal identifiers.

"Unless the ABS is able to provide appropriate detail which shall allay my concerns, I cannot in good conscience participate in the 2016 Census of Population and Housing. I am aware of the potential consequences and frankly would love the opportunity to set out these facts before a magistrate.

The bureau's project head for the census, Duncan Young, issued a response Mr Hamilton's position, saying 110-year-old legal safeguards were in place to prevent the sharing of census data with other government agencies.

"No identifiable, private or confidential data will be shared by the ABS with anyone," Mr Young said.
"In all modern censuses, the public have provided their names and addresses to the ABS as part of their census response, and have trusted the ABS to maintain their data securely, consistent with legislation.

"The ABS is asking for no additional information in 2016 than in previous censuses.

"Once 2016 census processing is complete, names and addresses will be separated from census data and they will never be re-combined.

"The retained names and addresses will be used to generate anonymous linkage keys that will support the integration of census data with other datasets to provide new insights.

"Names and addresses will be destroyed four years after collection, in August 2020 or earlier, once there is no longer any community benefit from their retention."

canberratimes 20 May 2016

You cannot trust any government institution with your data.

The [privacy] laws  do not apply to them.

They are unaccountable for their criminals actions.

It's all part of the penal colony rule Australian are under.

Convict past behaviour of Victoria Police comes out as they bashed and stripped a policewoman.

Lest we forget that Australia's police 'force' started off as convicts, you know criminals, just really really good behaved ones.

What was their job?  - To keep the convicts in line, subservient and docile.

Fast forward 228 years, and has anything changed?

Well the police still beat the general populace, who have been (arguably - in law) elevated from convict status, to serfs, into submission, keeping them docile and subservient to corporate rule.

 Also know that the police are part of the executive, meaning that they work for the government (now a corporation conglomerate).

The police are not public servants, as may be the common misconception, nor are they your 'friend'.

They answer to corporations and not you.

They are literally allowed to get away with assault and even murder.

As in the good ol' days the general populace are the enemy.

These are not conspiracy theories, but rather facts in law.

As in a very well publicised case, Corinna Horvath v Victoria Police, where VicPol bashed Ms. Horvath 'senseless' to the point that she could not remember the events of the day.

It took Horvath 20 years to obtain 'justice' but not in Australia but rather from the international court.

You, the serf will never obtain 'justice' as in law this country is still a penal colony of the British empire.

In law apparently you are supposed to use an equal opposing force against your assailant.


Did the Senior Constable Steven Repac, the 95 kilogram officer use an equal opposing force?

There are so many charges that can be brought against Repac.

Let's see how 'justice' is served.

Make no mistake that Victoria Police are a criminal organisation supported in their actions by a corrupt Australian government.

From the article of 23 May 2016 by the Heral Sun publication of the headline:

Policewoman stripped naked and bashed in footage shown to anti-corruption hearing

A POLICE officer was stripped naked below the waist before male colleagues kicked, stomped and stood on her, shocking footage played to an anti-corruption hearing shows.

The public Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) hearings, which started in Ballarat this morning, are examining a series of complaints against 158 Victoria Police officers based in the city.

It is twice the number of complaints lodged against officers in Frankston, a similar-sized station.

Counsel assisting Jack Rush QC said the hearings would examine four incidences in which police are accused of using excessive force.

The Herald Sun reported today one of the alleged victims was a serving police officer who was humiliated by other officers, pepper sprayed before being placed in a hot shower - which exacerbates the effect of the spray.

The officer was on leave on January 14, 2015 for personal issues, and was arrested for being drunk and disorderly.

The woman was involved in a scuffle with Sgt Renee Hulls after she grabbed the officer’s lanyard. A whole can of pepper spray was then used to subdue the woman known as Person A.

Footage played to the hearing showed the 51-year-old woman being stripped while handcuffed, left naked from the waste down while male officers stood on her legs.

“She was kicked, stomped, a stood on,” Mr Rush said.

Senior Constable Steven Repac, the 95 kilogram officer caught on CCTV kicking and standing on the woman’s bare legs in heavy police boots, said his actions were justified.

“I stood on her legs for the purposes of securing her lower body,” Sen-Constable Repac said.
But Mr Rush accused Sen-Constable Repac of giving false evidence.

“As a passing insult, you kicked her as you left,” Mr Rush said.

The woman was later left in a cold cell with no pants or blanket and drank water from the toilet.
She was released after 16 hours - 12 hours longer than people usually arrested for drunk and disorderly.

Sen-Constable Repac agreed he had been investigated by Vicpol internal affairs but the complaint was ‘not substantiated’ and he was allowed to return to work.

Ballarat police are accused of about one in twenty assault complaints lodged against officers in Victoria between 2010 and 2015, about three times the state average.

Police command raised concerns in 2009 about the high number of complaints in Ballarat and its response will be a key part of the week-long hearings.

“Regrettably time has not seen an improvement,” Mr Rush said.

“Complaints have remained constant and high.”

Mr Rush said of particular concern was the high number of assault complaints lodged against senior officers including sergeants in Ballarat.

The hearing continues.

Police actions (or inactions?) are for the "greater good of the community"

The authorities dictate law (as the community has no say as this country is not a democracy - true democracy exists in Switzerland, as Australia is still in law a penal colony of the British empire) for "peace order and good governance" or at least that is what is spruiked by the 'authorities' (read corporation conglomerate commonly referred to as the government).

The police in Australia are not 'public servants', they do not work for us/you (the serfs), never have and never will.


The police are part of the executive, meaning they work for the 'government' (read corporations).

The police, in the respective states of Australia are corporations with a CEO.

Victoria Police has jumped on the corporate bandwagon as of December 2013, under the Victoria Police Act 2013. 

The role of police is to keep the masses in order, subservient to corporate policy/rule.

Keep in mind that the general populous is told that police actions (or inaction) are for the "greater good of the community"

A sign on the road with numbers encompassed by a red circle indicates that a bureaucrat decides that traveling at a velocity of 60km/h on a stretch of road is 'safe' even though (maybe) previously 80km/h was deemed safe as well.

So, if you are  traveling in your automobile at an alleged velocity of  62km/h and you are caught doing so, the corporation known as the police will issue you a fine.

See example in illustration below:




This fine from an employee of a corporate entity commonly referred to as the police, is unlawful. 

See article:

Ex Victorian Police officer comments on Fines

 
The NSW government states that only a 'government' can issue a 'fine'.

See:
http://www.legalaid.nsw.gov.au/publications/factsheets-and-resources/private-car-park-finespayment-notices

Even that statement alone is severely flawed, incorrect in law.

 Remember this is done (allegedly) for the "greater good of the community".

If you are witness to the process of the employee of the police obtaining your details in order to issue you a 'fine' you may want to 'caution' the employee of the corporation to withdraw any fine, as their actions are unlawful.

Obtain their full name, registered (badge) number, and the address of their place of business.

This information is needed to press criminal charges against the person who issued you the 'fine', at a later point in time.


Please note:

EVERY single  fine (e.g. speed/redlight camera, toll) is unlawful and must be taken to 'court'.



From the news.com.au article of the 21st of May 2016 of the headline:

Top end community where women brawl in front of police has been let down by the system

Police watch in the background as two women throw punches at each other in the Queensland community of Aurukun.

“THEY’RE not bad people, they’ve been abandoned and neglected.”

That’s what David Martin said about the people of a Far North Queensland community almost 10 years ago and it remains true now.

At the time, the township of Aurukun, home to approximately 1200 people, had shown Australia its darkest side. A 10-year-old girl had been gang raped by nine men in a case described as “the tip of the iceberg”.

News over the years from the small, remote township on the western coast of the Cape York Peninsula has not been flattering.

A 2011 report declared Aurukun had one of the worst murder rates in the world. Last year alone there was the shocking death of a man who was run over as community members watched, there were shots fired at police, there was a hammer attack and there were riots.

This week, Aurukun made national headlines again for all the wrong reasons. Teachers at a local school were evacuated last Tuesday when a student allegedly threatened a teacher with an axe. The school has been closed for a week.

That incident was followed by mobile phone footage showing women throwing fists at each other while police stood metres away and chose not to intervene.

The news has cast the spotlight on Aurukun once again. Dr Martin, who first visited Aurukun on a break from the University of Queensland in 1975 and subsequently decided to stay, says it’s not necessarily a bad thing that the rest of Australia is watching. But the question is where to go from here.

For 40 years he has held close ties with community members. He’s overseen efforts to improve the lives of those who live there and he’s written a doctorate in anthropology that draws deeply on what he’s witnessed.

His response to watching women circling in the orange dirt, trying to land a punch, is simple: “My feeling is a degree of distress,” he told news.com.au.

He says what Australians are seeing is “a truly extraordinary community” and “a lost generation” but it’s not their fault. Take a closer look, he says, and the real problems are everywhere.

REAL PROBLEM WITH POLICING IN THE TOP END

In the footage, police are seen standing by their vehicles and watching the women brawl. It’s hard to look at, but it’s normal behaviour, they say.

Assistant Police Commissioner Paul Taylor defended the inaction by police. He said it was a matter of protecting the wider community.

“On occasion, the temperature within the community can raise quite rapidly because of one minor incident,” Mr Taylor said.

“Often, when police get to these incidents, there are large numbers of spectators and the complexities in Aurukun mean those people are all related to the combatants, and they are highly emotionally charged.

“If they do intervene, are they going to take it from a fair fight between two individuals to having a large mob, who are highly emotive, start fighting? On occasion, for the greater good of the community, it’s extremely difficult for us to intervene.”

The problem is bigger than that. One reason it’s so difficult for police in Aurukun is because many of them are rotated in and out from Cairns. It means they never get to know the community and, perhaps more importantly, the community never gets to understand them.

“Police have a very difficult job,” Dr Martin said.

“In the emphasis on maintaining law and order in very difficult circumstances, what is missing in terms of policing is community engagement. In recent months there have been contingents of Cairns police rotated through on six-week shifts.

“They never get to know the people that way, they never get to establish meaningful relationships with the community, including those who are ‘ringleaders’ in fighting. Police don’t really know who the key people are, and the potential for escalation when police arrive at a fight is huge.

“If they were known to and trusted by all sides, and if the police in turn knew something of the individuals concerned, then I believe those involved in fighting would be more receptive to intervention. Both sides need to know the other.”

Aurukun is 800km north of Cairns on the western side of Cape York. Picture: Brendan RadkeSource:News Corp Australia

DRUGS, ALCOHOL AND DISCONNECTED YOUTH

There’s a watch house in Aurukun that, at any one time, is likely to have many young people locked up. It’s a bandaid solution to a much bigger problem.

There’s been a demographic boom and there are more young people in Aurukun than ever. Most feel alienated from the rest of Australia but also find it difficult to connect with their own cultural leaders.

“It’s a lost generation,” Dr Martin said. “Old people in Aurukun tell me it’s a lost generation, that young people don’t listen to them and they are heart sick about that.”

He said young men in particular are looking for a way to express themselves. They have leadership skills and energy but they’re channelling them into the wrong areas.

“What we’re seeing with the violence in Aurukun is increasingly the kind of group violence that we see in urban areas, in gangs in some other remote Aboriginal communities, and in the urban US.
“What the wider world offers in terms of education, employment and the like is not seen as meaningful for far too many of the young men. What their own society has to offer is also rejected.

They do not seem to respect law and culture in the way previous generations did.”

He said the lives of young people in Aurukun are characterised by boredom.

“There’s a lot of energy and creativity and they see no outlet for that. The ringleaders are ringleaders often because more than others they understand the hopelessness of their situation, and react to it.

They have leadership and creativity and energy, but it is being directed in an anti-social direction.

“We need to work with those ringleaders to see if they can’t be engaged. Locking them up only perpetuates the problem.”

Aurukun is made up of five ritual groups comprised of often antagonistic families with origins in different parts of Wik country. They all live jammed together in a remote version of housing estates with no escape from conflict which they find impossible to manage.

It’s a “dry community”, meaning alcohol and drugs are banned. But the reality is that drinking and using drugs is a big part of community life. There are problems with domestic violence, too, and children missing school.

In 2008, Aurukun, along with eight other communities in the Cape, signed up to a government-supported welfare reform project, but the money isn’t going to the right places.

Aurukun Mayor Dereck Walpo told the ABC this week he doesn’t know where much of the money has gone.

“A lot of money has been spent in this community over the last eight years but where’s it all gone?” he said. “I wish I knew. Where’s all the positive outcomes?”

Indigenous boy Lewis Kooloika rides his bike through the dusty streets of Aurukun. Picture: Brendan RadkeSource:News Corp Australia

THE GOVERNMENT IS WATCHING, PREMIER SAYS

It would be understandable for residents to feel like they’ve been abandoned but Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says that’s not the case.

“I’ll be catching up with the Police Commissioner today for an update but we actually have a whole-of-government approach and my director-general will be travelling up there next week,” she said.
“We are closely monitoring the situation but I am very determined to make sure that people in that community get access to jobs.”

Watching is a theme in Aurukun. The State Government is watching. Police are watching. Some locals say it’s part of what’s going wrong. Too much watching and not enough action.

“They would not do that in other places in Australia, so why should they do that here,” Aboriginal leader Phyllis Yunkaporta said on Wednesday, referring to police standing by idly while women traded blows.

“What message does it send to a child to see a fight and police standing by and watching?”