Release: Victoria fills budget holes with fines for hard-working commuters

Release: Victoria fills budget holes with fines for hard-working commuters

The Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance, the nation’s largest grassroots advocacy group representing taxpayers, today accused the Victorian government of using additional speed cameras to collect even more money for the government.

“Stephen Leane has chosen to leave the police force to become a high-tech meter maid with a fleet of speed cameras. Mr. Leane should consider taking a role at the ATO where at least he could prey of people’s savings more openly.

“Rather than filling potholes with the money the government collects with the fuel tax, Victorian bureaucrats are filling holes in the budget by fining drivers,” said ATA Communications Manager, Emilie Dye. “Speed cameras are not about safety; they provide a lucrative source of income for the government.

“If bureaucrats cared about safety, they would spend the money they collect on the fuel tax building safer roads. Instead 75 percent of that revenue goes to political pet projects and the 15 percent left for drivers is used to install speed cameras intended to bring in even more money.”

“The taxman already takes large fractions of hard-working Australians’ income; fines are a sneaky way of getting even more. Traffic fines are one of the most regressive taxes. $300 to a wealthy person hardly matters, but to a poor person that amounts to more than a week’s rent.”

“By setting speed limits too low and installing speed cameras, the government can neatly tie up all the budget loose ends on the backs of working-class Aussies. Wealthy Melbournians can take the trams to work, paid for by the fuel tax. Meanwhile working class people find cheaper housing outside the city center and are forced to commute by car. The longer the commute, the more fines.

“Even the man in charge of Victoria’s speed camera plan only ‘thinks’ they make roads safer, but safety is not the point of speed cameras. More cameras mean more money for the Victorian government. Draconian driving laws do little to make Australians safer, but do much to make the government coffers fatter.”