SA government plans to ban ticketless parking fines

The South Australian government aims to ban councils from issuing ticketless parking fines by introducing legislation to parliament. The new rules would require council inspectors to physically issue fines rather than posting them to drivers after a camera car has passed. The Local Government Association of SA claims it was not consulted on the proposed changes and argues that ticketless systems are more efficient.

Premier Peter Malinauskas highlighted the City of Adelaide's Park Safe program, which employs camera-equipped cars to identify illegally parked vehicles and capture high-quality images. The program has resulted in a 25% withdrawal rate of contested fines this year due to reviews by parking information officers. Tour bus operator Dallas Coull commented that he had not received fines before the Park Safe program but has since received many, and shopper Fiona Garwood expressed support for the planned reforms.

However, the South Australian premier emphasized that AI technology could still be used but must be physically issued by a council inspector at the time of the alleged offense. The Local Government Association of SA president, Heather Holmes-Ross, expressed concern over the lack of consultation and questioned whether the reforms would extend to other ticketless fine systems, as the technology used in parking fines is similar to that in red light cameras and phone detection.