EDITORIAL:

I want to spend this morning talking about something I'm genuinely concerned about.

I want to be tough on crime, like everyone does.

I want to be serious about saving lives on our roads, course we do, that's a no brainer.

So this is exactly where you start. 

The latest numbers are in, and they are big. 

Police issued 538,192 speeding fines in 2025—now that’s the highest in 15 years. Break that down, and it’s more than one fine every single minute of the year.  

That’s up from 461,000 in 2024 and 402,000 in 2023. So enforcement isn’t just rising—it’s ramping up fast. 

Those fines brought in $54.2 million, with the average sitting around $100. And that’s just tickets issued by officers—not even counting speed cameras. 

Now, some people hear that and say, “Here we go, revenue gathering.” 

I don’t see it that way. 

Because at the same time enforcement has gone up, road fatalities have been trending down from previous highs.  

Even the AA’s road safety spokesperson has said it’s hard to prove direct link—but they also say they don’t think it’s a coincidence that stronger enforcement and lower road deaths are happening at the same time. 

And that makes sense, doesn’t it? 

Speed is consistently identified by Police as a leading contributor to crashes and the severity of those crashes.

So if you increase enforcement, you increase deterrence. And if you increase deterrence, you reduce risk. 

It’s not complicated. 

Now look—I don’t like getting a speeding ticket any more than anyone else.  

But I like even less watching someone scream past me at crazy speed and thinking, “That’s someone who could kill someone today.” 

So if Police are out there in greater force, doing exactly what they’ve said they’ll do—targeting speed—then good. That’s their job. 

But here’s where I think we need to go further. 

These fines are stuck in the last century. Literally. 

They were set in 1999, and since then, incomes have roughly doubled.  

Even the AA and the Transport Minister have acknowledged the penalties are too low. The AA has said that, at a minimum - double, an inflation adjustment would effectively mean doubling the fines. 

And I agree. 

Because if a fine doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t change behaviour. It just becomes part of the cost of driving badly. 

If you've only got a hundred dollar fine, but two hundred - you'd be thinking that's tough.

So lift them. Make them meaningful. Make them immediate. Make them a proper deterrent. 

Because here’s the bottom line. 

Nobody wants that knock on the door. Nobody wants that phone call telling you someone you love isn’t coming home. 

If tougher enforcement is already working—and the data strongly suggests it is—then why wouldn’t we learn from this, why wouldn't we make it harsher?

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