SA government plans to ban ticketless parking fines

The South Australian government plans to ban councils from issuing ticketless parking fines.

Under the planned reforms, councils would be banned from posting fines to drivers after a camera car has driven past, and it would be mandatory for inspectors to leave a physical ticket on the car or hand it to the driver.

The South Australian premier highlighted the City of Adelaide's Park Safe program — which uses a car with cameras on top to scan for illegally parked cars and take high-quality photos — as an example.

The council has previously said the images are reviewed by trained officers to verify whether an offence has occurred.

A recent council report showed that on average, 25 per cent of contested fines were withdrawn following requests for reviews by parking information officers so far this year.

Tour bus operator Dallas Coull, who spoke at the government's press conference about the reforms, said he had never received fines before the Park Safe program but had received "dozens and dozens" since its implementation.

"There's actually a hotel in the CBD that don't pick up [at] anymore because we get kept getting fines," he said.

In nearby Rundle Mall, shopper Fiona Garwood welcomed the planned changes, saying she would "rather have things done by a person".

Fellow shopper Levi Adams said he had seen the council's Park Safe car in the CBD before and agreed with the government's proposed reforms.

"I'm concerned about AI in every aspect of life, so I really don't need it to be in parking fines as well. The less, the better, in my opinion," the 23-year-old said.

Mr Malinauskas said AI technology could still be used, but any ticket would need to be physically issued by a council inspector at the time of the alleged offence.

"If they've got someone in the car and someone gets out of the car, looks at the circumstances … that's OK," he said.

"It's the practice of the car and the AI machine only forming the judgement that we are regulating out."

Local Government Association of SA president Heather Holmes-Ross said it was "unusual" that the state government had not consulted them on the planned reforms, and questioned whether it would extend to other ticketless fine systems.

"The technology we're talking about is the same technology that's used by red light cameras, phone detection — it's all the same software — so we're a little confused about why it would be that just parking data is being attacked here and not all data that's collected by AI," she said.

But the state government said there was an "important distinction" between enforcing parking restrictions and road safety laws.

"Parking fines are mostly issued to stationary cars whereas that is clearly not the case for a speeding car," a spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said the state government would consult stakeholders, including the LGA.

Ms Holmes-Ross, who is also the mayor of Mitcham in Adelaide's inner-south, said there were several councils trialling the technology around the state in a bid to improve efficiency, with human oversight.

"If you drive past 10 or 20 cars, then that video can be viewed, and those fines can be mailed out," she said.

"If you're stopping and you're giving out those 20 individually, it just takes more time. 

"So if there's a way of doing it accurately and more efficiently, it's better for everyone."