TORT TALK TODAY

Monday I suggested there hadn't been much tort talk over our speed camera fiasco and our struggling State Gummermint's relevant liabilities.

I further suggested that just one faulty reading could be all that's needed to cast doubt on that camera and thus cancel out any fines attributed to that camera.

Today in the Herald Sun opinion pages, lawyer Sarah Henderson, talks about just that.

Because their op-ed pages - apart from resident rockstar Andrew Bolt - aren't online, I get to practice my typing skills and thus bring all our Braxtorian "inappropriateness" to the rest of you deprived Strayans....

Coming clean on cameras
By Sarah Henderson

IF my experience is anything to go by, Victoria's speed camera fiasco is far worse than has been documented.

On Anzac Day in 2002, I was booked for speeding in the Burnley tunnel. I had been to the Anzac Day match at the MCG between Collingwood and Essendon.

After the game, I drove from the ground to my sister's house before returning home.

There was only one problem. At no time during that day did I travel through the Burnley tunnel. Or any tunnel, for that matter.

When I first received the speeding infringement, I didn't realise the error. But it was April 25 -- a day when I clearly recalled where I had and had not travelled -- so it wasn't long before I realised that I had become the victim of some monumental speed camera software stuff-up.

The funny thing is, I suspect that Poltech and the Government were aware of it as well. I didn't pay the fine. But I never received a summons. Or the sheriff on the front doorstep.

YET how many other motorists in the same situation have paid their fines and gained demerit points and lost their licences, not realising that they either weren't speeding or weren't there in the first place?

The Victorian Government must come clean about the speed camera fiasco.
As I've discovered, the problems that have been reported to date appear to be only the tip of the iceberg.

I have no doubt that if the Government opened its files to the people of Victoria, much of the $400 million annual revenue from speed cameras would be called into question.

If the Government refuses to honestly report the extent of the problem, it could also expose itself to a giant class-action lawsuit.

According to Bill O'Shea, the president of the Law Institute of Victoria, motorists may well have an action under the Trade Practices Act for misleading or deceptive conduct, or even a remedy under administrative law over the failure of the Government to conduct itself properly in office.

Legal action of this type would certainly be an option if it were discovered that the Government, its ministers or agencies had been involved in covering up the extent of the faulty speed cameras.

In any event, as each day passes, more and more doubt arises over the validity of speed camera fines. And the countless prosecutions and lost licences. And, ultimately, the credibility of the Bracks Government.

Who knows what the real truth is? For how long have the cameras been defective? And how seriously flawed is the system?

From the very beginning, Premier Steve Bracks and ministers Rob Hulls and Andre Haermeyer have handled this whole debacle extremely poorly.

When the Herald Sun broke the story, Premier Bracks promised to fix the problem. Yet he did nothing.

When the Law Institute of Victoria called on motorists to challenge infringement notices in court, Attorney-General Hulls defended the state's speed cameras and condemned the Law Institute for blatant self-interest.

O F course, we didn't hear anything about the Government's blatant interest in attempting to preserve as much speed camera revenue as it could.

It was only when further embarrassing defects were found that police announced a six-week freeze on the state's 47 speed cameras.

Bill O'Shea told me yesterday: "Unfair laws, laws that operate capriciously, are bad laws."

"The ministers should have been pulled into line for defending the indefensible. Frankly, if there'd been a Peter Beattie-style premier in this state, this wouldn't have happened."

"We need a premier who's prepared to jump on his ministers. (Bracks) should have intervened a lot earlier." The police will now refund fines, reverse demerit points and restore licences where dud cameras were to blame.

But the Law Institute says that any motorist who's been caught speeding by a fixed camera over the past six months should have the right to such recourse, without the onerous burden of having to prove that a particular camera was at fault.

By the way, Mr Hulls, that may cost a lot in revenue but not a cent in legal fees.

And it may also save further political damage on an issue which, whether they can see it or not, has the potential to bring down the Government.

[email protected] SARAH HENDERSON is a lawyer and director of Kudos Management

Licking my finger and holding it up, I detect far less legalistic vitriol blowing in the wind than would otherwise have been present under the previous government. The question remains as to whether the class-action clique are in the gummermint's pocket.