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Coronavirus fines totalling $2.3 million have been issued to teenagers in Victoria, prompting renewed calls for the penalties to be waived to avoid unnecessarily dragging young people into the justice system.
Data from the Department of Justice and Community Safety shows that to December 15 last year, 1560 COVID-19-related fines were issued to Victorians aged under 18, raising concerns young people and their families will be unable to pay sums that can run to more than $1600.
Victoria Police issue pandemic-related fines at a refugee rights protest in Preston earlier this year.
Community legal practitioners working with young people who were fined say the âexcessiveâ penalties are in some cases 10 times higher than what minors would normally receive for offences in the Childrenâs Court, for what were in many cases inadvertent breaches.
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When the pandemic hit in March and Melbourne went into lockdown, Melis Layik lost all three of her casual jobs.
Luckily for the law and global studies student, she was among 339,000 Australian recipients of the Youth Allowance who got a special $550 fortnightly coronavirus supplement. Another 1.3 million Australians on JobSeeker got the $550 supplement too.
Student Melis Layik lost three casual jobs when the pandemic hit.
Credit:Paul Jeffers
But the fourth-year Monash University student said since then little had changed for her in the employment market. I haven’t really seen much of anything come up, said the 21-year-old, who until March worked for two medical companies, helping with training for medical students, and as an English tutor. She is still looking for work.