Re: New stuff printed on my Metcard

[steam4me@enternet.com.au (Yuri J Sos/Melbourne AUS)]

On Sun, 19 Jul 1998 10:37:04 +1000, Tony Gatt <tgatt@eisa.net.au>
wrote, and I selectively quote:
>
> What is a penalty unit???

Modern legislation is framed so that it does not need to be re-written
every time the government needs to change the amount of a fine.  In
most Acts nowadays ranging from wild dogs running amok to the advances
of the Metcard (probably much the same thing<g!>), fines are described
as penalty units.  A regulation(?) then issued by the government will
state that for a given Act, 1 penalty unit is (say) $10.  Thus 5
penalty units is $50.

When inflation or revenue requirements require it (or Lloyd's money
bin is having a bad week), it is then a simple matter to decree that 1
penalty unit is now (say) $15; hence the fine for a 5 penalty unit
offence is now $75.

Regards

Yuri
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