Fines, Penalties and Infringement Notices Enforcement Act 1994

Part 2 establishes the Registry and the Registrar. The Registry is the administrative hub through which all enforcement actions are processed. The Registrar is a statutory officer with broad enforcement powers and may delegate functions to authorised officers. All payments under the Act are made to the Registry, and the Registrar keeps records of all registered fines and outstanding amounts, including a separate register for amounts owed by young persons under section 10B.

Part 3 governs the enforcement of infringement notices: on-the-spot penalties issued under various written laws (for example, traffic offences, parking, environmental offences and minor regulatory breaches). The Part applies only to principal enactments that have been prescribed as enactments to which the Part applies, and only to prosecuting authorities that have been approved by the Registrar under section 13.

Division 2 sets out the enforcement sequence. If a modified penalty is not paid within the time specified in the infringement notice, the prosecuting authority may issue a final demand (section 14). If the demand is not satisfied, the notice may be registered with the Registry, triggering the enforcement machinery. Upon registration, the Registrar issues an order to pay or elect (section 17): the alleged offender must either pay the unpaid infringement amount or elect to have the matter dealt with by a court. Failure to comply with the order may lead to a licence suspension order under section 19, which is served on the Roads and Transport authority and results in suspension of the offender's driver's licence.

If the unpaid amount is still not recovered after licence suspension, the Registrar may issue an enforcement warrant under section 21A, authorising the Sheriff to seize and sell personal property and, through the land-related provisions in Part 7, to register memorials against and ultimately sell real property.

Division 2A provides for time to pay orders in the infringement notice context, enabling the alleged offender to apply for an order permitting payment by instalments. The Registrar is required to make a time to pay order if satisfied that the amount is beyond the alleged offender's immediate means and that the proposed payment plan is reasonable.

Division 3 contains miscellaneous provisions including the alleged offender's right to elect court determination (section 21), the effect of payment of the modified penalty (section 24), and the application of recovered amounts (section 27).

Part 4 is the equivalent regime for court-imposed fines. Division 1 contains definitions, including the concept of an "enforceable registered fine" as the trigger for enforcement action. Division 2 deals with the registration of fines: under the 2020 reforms, fines imposed by courts in certain proceedings are automatically registered with the Registry upon imposition (Subdivision 1), while others require the prosecuting authority to request registration (Subdivision 2). The offender must pay or obtain a time to pay order within 28 days of the fine being registered.

Division 3 contains the core enforcement provisions. Once the grace period passes without payment or a time to pay order, the Registrar must issue a notice of intention to enforce (section 42). Following that notice, the Registrar has a range of enforcement instruments available.

Division 3A provides for licence suspension orders equivalent to those in Part 3. Division 3B provides for enforcement warrants authorising the Sheriff to seize personal and real property. Division 3C provides for the work and development order (WDO) regime, under which an offender who is unable to pay may apply for a WDO authorising payment of the outstanding amount by performing unpaid community work, or by undertaking approved activities such as vocational training, treatment programs, mentoring or restorative justice activities. The WDO regime was substantially reformed in 2020 to make it more accessible and to widen the range of approved activities.

Division 3D provides for fine expiation orders, allowing the outstanding amount to be extinguished through sustained compliance with an approved expiation activity.

Division 3E introduces the warrant of commitment process as a last resort. The Registrar may apply to the Magistrates Court for a warrant of commitment inquiry under section 52N if all other enforcement options have been exhausted or are unlikely to succeed. The inquiry is conducted before a magistrate, who examines the offender's financial circumstances, assets and history of compliance with enforcement orders, and determines the appropriate course of action. The magistrate may impose a term of imprisonment as a last resort. The 2020 reforms significantly restructured this process to strengthen the safeguards against imprisonment for fine default.

Division 3F addresses the interaction of concurrent enforcement instruments. Publication of the names of persistent fine defaulters on the Registrar's website is dealt with in Part 5A.

Part 5 deals with the enforcement of amounts forfeited under recognisances and undertakings given in court proceedings. These amounts are treated equivalently to court-imposed fines for enforcement purposes once registered with the Registry.

Part 5A enables the Registrar to publish identifying details of persons who have outstanding enforceable registered fines above a prescribed threshold. Division 2 sets out the process: the Registrar must give notice to the person before publishing, and the person may object. The publication power is intended to create a reputational incentive for compliance, and applies only after other enforcement mechanisms have been attempted.

Part 6 enables the reciprocal enforcement of fines imposed on bodies corporate in summary proceedings in other Australian jurisdictions. A fine imposed on a body corporate in another jurisdiction may be registered with the Registry for enforcement in Western Australia under the procedures applicable to court-imposed fines.

Part 7 sets out the detailed provisions governing the Sheriff's functions under enforcement warrants. Division 2 addresses general Sheriff's functions; Division 3 covers seizure and sale of personal property; Division 4 covers seizure and sale of land; Division 5 covers interpleader proceedings by third-party claimants to seized property; Division 6A confers additional powers in relation to vehicles; and Division 6B creates a garnishment mechanism enabling the Sheriff to intercept money owed to the debtor by third parties.

The land-related provisions (Division 4) require the Sheriff to register a memorial against the debtor's land under either the Transfer of Land Act 1893 or the Registration of Deeds Act 1856, which prevents further dealings in the land without the Sheriff's consent. Land may be sold by public auction (section 91B), subject to the right of the debtor to apply to the Magistrates Court for an order that the land may be sold by tender, private agreement or below fair value. A transfer signed by the Sheriff gives the purchaser as good a title as the debtor had (section 92).

Part 7A authorises the Registrar to obtain information from government agencies and others to assist in locating fine defaulters and identifying their assets. This includes access to licensing records and other government databases.

Part 8 contains provisions on the protection of officers acting in good faith, the review of Registrar decisions, the making of regulations, and other miscellaneous matters.

Part 9 contains savings and transitional provisions for the 2012 and 2020 Amendment Acts. Division 1 deals with the 2012 amendments. Division 2 deals with the 2020 amendments, including provisions preserving the validity of enforcement actions commenced under the pre-amendment provisions.

The FPINE Act intersects with several other statutes. The Road Traffic (Administration) Act 2008 (WA) contains a parallel instalment payment regime for road traffic infringement notices, and section 14A of the FPINE Act addresses the transition from that regime to the FPINE enforcement machinery when an instalment is missed. The Civil Judgments Enforcement Act 2004 (WA) applies to land sales under Part 7 enforcement warrants. The Transfer of Land Act 1893 and the Registration of Deeds Act 1856 govern the registration and effect of memorials over land. The Bankruptcy Act 1966 (Cth) raises questions about whether infringement notice liabilities are provable debts in bankruptcy, as examined in Victoria v Mansfield [2003] FCAFC 154.

The FPINE Act's warrant of commitment provisions have attracted significant scrutiny in relation to their disproportionate impact on disadvantaged and Indigenous Western Australians. Representative litigation in Roe (Administrator) v State of Western Australia [2025] FCA 105 challenges the lawfulness of warrants of commitment issued between 2014 and 2020, with the representative applicants seeking declarations that the issue of those warrants constituted unlawful discrimination. The 2020 amendments to the Act were in part a response to these concerns, strengthening hardship provisions, expanding the WDO regime and restructuring the warrant of commitment inquiry process.

For legal practitioners, the FPINE Act is relevant in several contexts. For those advising individuals with outstanding fines, the key provisions are the time to pay order regime (sections 32C to 37 for court fines, sections 21B to 21H for infringement notices) and the WDO regime (Division 3C). For those facing a warrant of commitment inquiry, the Magistrates Court process under sections 52N to 52ZI is the relevant framework. For insolvency practitioners, the question of whether fines and infringement notice penalties are provable debts in bankruptcy (examined in Mansfield [2003] FCAFC 154) may arise. For practitioners advising government agencies and prosecuting authorities, the conditions for approval under section 13 and the requirements for final demands and registration under Division 2 are the relevant provisions.