Penalty units

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Breaches of statute law in Australia are usually prescribed in terms of penalty units or PUs. To establish a fine, multiply the number of penalty units by the amount.

The value of a penalty unit in the state of Victoria is A$122.14 as of 1 July 2011 (2011 -07-01)^{[update] [1]}. Therefore a fine defined as 100 penalty units would incur a penalty of $12,214, rounded to the closest 10 cents. One penalty unit in NSW is $110 ^[2]. One penalty unit in Queensland is $100 ^[3].

Under Australian federal law a penalty unit is $110 as of 2007^[update][4].

Inflation

When inflation started to be a problem, fines and other charges started to get out of kilter. It became too big a job to amend each individual law to keep the amount of fines and charges. Penalty units enable fines and charges to be easily adjusted.

References

• "Rural Law Online Glossary". http://www.rurallaw.org.au/handbook/xml/go01.php. Retrieved 2008-03-22. 

See also

• Standard scale