International Law

The Queensland Government has announced that they will introduce on-the-spot fines for public nuisance, clearing up the workload of the Magistrates Court:

The Queensland Government will extend on-the-spot fines for public nuisance offences.

Matters such as disorderly conduct are currently dealt with in the courts with fines ranging from $100 to $300.

Premier Anna Bligh says a year-long trial in Townsville and South Brisbane has proved the on-the-spot system works.

Ms Bligh says giving police the power to issue fines will take the pressure off front-line officers and the courts.

"The Magistrates Court currently - 60 per cent of their workload is public nuisance offences," she said.

Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek is broadly supportive.

"There needs to be a level of fines for these sorts of things that is not just seen as revenue raising," he said.

Police Minister Neil Roberts says he hopes to have the new powers in place by early next year.

Read more here (ABC News).  This seems to be a fairly logical move to me - most public nuisance matters don't need a court hearing to be resolved, and it will ease the workload of the Magistrates Court in Queensland.  Further, as with most traffic offences, you will still be able to opt to have the matter heard before a Magistrate, instead of paying the on the spot fine.  However, I understand the concern of civil libertarians that this new power could be abused, and it is for that reason that I will wait to see the legislation before supporting this proposal outright.

Channel Ten news reported on this last night, including an interview with my QUT colleague Al MacAdam.  You can watch a video of that story here.