Launching the ‘Its Not Fine’ campaign, Community Legal Centres Tasmania is calling for a change to the system that would see smaller fines handed to those facing financial difficulties.

Lawyer and CLC policy officer Ben Bartl said mandatory minimum fines were “not working”.

“To say that someone who’s looking for work has to pay the same as a millionaire is just ridiculous,” he said.

“We are not opposed to people being punished for their crimes, all we are saying is the impact of the fine should be equal.”

Mr Bartl said documents released under Right to Information revealed about 6000 people have their driver’s license suspended each year in Tasmania, because of unpaid fines - 70 per cent of which are court-imposed fines.

“In most of these cases, they get another fine,” he said.

“The system is not working. The easiest way to deal with it is to fine the person proportionate to their income.”

The campaign follows a submission by Community Legal Centres Tasmania to the Australian Law Reform Commission in September.

The submission calls for a ‘day fine’ model, which is used in European countries and is based on the offender’s daily income.

Explaining the ‘day fine’ model on its campaign website, Community Legal Centres Tasmania said it would “ensure that there remains an effective deterrent against repeating the offence but it is at a rate that even the poorest are able to pay off”.

“The day fine allows all of us to understand the punishment with the court first determining the seriousness of the offence as well as your blameworthiness. Then the court takes into account your personal and financial circumstances including income, how many children you have and your debts,” the campaign read.

“In this way the day fine guarantees that everyone feels the punishment equally.”

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