By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A community legal service is appealing a mass of Covid-related fines in the South East.
Covid fines were the most prolific offence in Greater Dandenong, with more than 2000 issued over the 12 months up to 31 March 2021.
More than 5 per cent of Victoria’s Covid fines were in Greater Dandenong.
Kristen Wallwork of Springvale Monash Legal Service said many of the people fined up to $4957 were already under financial hardship.
They were also appealing the circumstances in which they were fined.
Some were young people who ran into people they knew while they were out exercising. They dispute that they were intentionally congregating in breach of Chief Health Officer directions.
Others include a pair of cleaners who travelled in a car together without masks.
Because they couldn’t speak English, they were unable to convey to police officers that they were in fact husband-and-wife.
Ms Wallwork said the SMLS was seeking Fines Victoria to review the infringements – a process hindered by the state’s fines agency’s large backlog.
Covid shutdowns have meanwhile delayed a surge of family violence matters at court, she says.
The collaborative approach at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court between lawyers, court support workers and multi-disciplinary services have been disrupted by lockdowns.
It comes as SMLS has been funded to provide extra lawyers focused on family violence.
During Covid, family violence serious assaults have risen 12 per cent and domestic common assaults 10 per cent in Greater Dandenong.
Intervention order breaches soared by 29 percent, stalking 17 per cent and harassment 33 per cent.
“The numbers are large and the issue is large in the Dandenong court. There’s incredibly collaborative work done to find the most effective way to deal with these matters,” Ms Wallwork says.
“During lockdowns, services have been unable to work together as they normally would.”
SMLS clients are also struggling to pay the household rent, especially with the end of the Covid eviction moratorium from 29 March 2021.
International students who lost casual work due to Covid have been particularly vulnerable.
Their problems were compounded by a scam in which they pay a bond to a supposed landlord and find that the place has been already rented, Ms Wallwork said.
They find that their ‘bond’ hasn’t been registered with the Residential Tenancies Bond Authority, and so have no recourse for compensation.
Ms Wallwork said some clients are being pressured by landlords to pay arrears from the rental moratorium period.
