Western Plains baker Brendan McNeil was on his way to work in October 2020. This was the peak period of the COVID spread and the height of COVID restrictions.   

It was 3 am. His car had broken down, and he had to stop to get to fixed. A police car stopped to see what was going on. 

They fined him for breach of COVID restrictions because he was outside without a valid excuse. 

"This just seemed very cruel and unkind," Samantha Lee, Police Accountability Solicitor at Redfern Legal Centre, told the Western Plains App. 

Not least of all because the fine was worth several thousand dollars. 

If you've been following our coverage of the fight to annul COVID-era fines, you may remember that most of the top fined local government areas are in the Western Plains area. 

If you need a bit of a refresher, these are the key facts: 

•  Walgett recorded the highest rate of COVID-19 fines in the state for public health order breaches in NSW per capita, with 168 totaling $148,480 between July 2020 and October 2021.

• Walgett had the highest rate of fines between July 2020 and October 2021, where six people out of every 100 were fined for COVID breaches. 

• The most socio-economically disadvantaged areas in the state made up all of the most fined LGA's during this period. 

• About four in 100 residents were fined in Wilcannia, while Brewarrina, with a population of 1,356 people, had about five in 100 people fined.  

• Coonamble, Bourke, Goodooga, Warren, and Collarenebri were also near the top of the list for the proportion of residents receiving COVID-19 fines by local government areas right across the state. 

In November, the NSW government was forced to cancel 33,000 fines, worth an estimated $30m, for breaches of Covid-era public health orders after conceding they were too vague following a successful Supreme Court challenge by the Redfern Legal Centre. 

Around 29,000 fines remain and are yet to be challenged in the Supreme Court.

Now the Redfern Legal Centre is launching a fresh challenge to annul more fines with the hope the Government and the Office of Revenue will decide to cancel all the remaining fines. 

"These fines are being challenged on the same basis as the last fines that the court declared are invalid," Ms. Lee told the Western Plains App.  

Samantha Lee. Image: Redfern Legal Centre. 

"We are saying that they are invalid because they fail to adequately inform the person of what they've done wrong, so they don't know what they have to prove." 

"We are taking this to court because the government and the police have failed to withdraw the remaining fines."

The test case they are bringing to the court starting with a directions hearing July 25 involves a person needing a particular permit to leave Sydney. At the time of the offence, they were homeless and living in their van. They were headed to the New South Wales border, going to South Australia, where there was a friend offering them a place to live. So they were waiting at the border for a permit, and when they were waiting at the border, the police gave them a $3000 fine for not having a permit. 

"We are really bringing this case to demonstrate the absurdity of the situation," Ms Lee explained.   

"What we are trying to say is that all these COVID offenses are the same even though the offenses are different. I mean, we can keep bringing individual cases for each fine, it costs everyone money and time, or they can just withdraw the remaining fines…we are hoping that the Government will tip over and do the right thing if this particular offense is withdrawn, without us having to waste time and money by taking each one to court". 

There were 34 possible offenses to be fined for during the peak COVID period, and Ms. Lee said all the fines failed to adequately inform the person of the offenses they have committed, so they don't know what they have done wrong. 

The Western Plains App asked Ms. Lee why it is that Western Plains towns, and, in particular, those with the highest levels of disadvantage, were the most fined during COVID - along with some of the most disadvantaged areas of Sydney. 

"There are several factors," she said. 

Image: Supreme Court of NSW. 

"The first is that those who were already policed were policed more during COVID. A lot of these places were people who had to go to work and couldn't work from home, so they were more visible. 

"The public health orders were based on a white middle-class way of living." 

Since January 2023, the Western Plains App has made repeated requests for comment from the Government, including asking why our towns were disproportionately fined and whether they would consider withdrawing all remaining fines.

We asked both the LNP state Government when they were in power, the NSW ALP party when they were in opposition, and again when they were elected. We have not received a response from any of them. 

On July 17, we sent an email to the media liaison at Premier Chris Minns office and followed up on July 20, but we again have yet to receive a response. 

Editor's note: Some names have been changed in this piece to protect people's privacy.