Local Government (Infringement Notices) Regulations 2024

The Regulations operate through a small set of core legal and administrative concepts, each defined or invoked in the instrument itself or in the connected Acts referenced in the Endnotes.

Prescribed infringement offence. Regulation 5 identifies selected offences in the Local Government Act 2020 as "prescribed infringement offences" for the purpose of section 199AAC(1) of the Act. The Regulations do not restate the conduct elements of those offences; they only designate those statutory offences as eligible to be dealt with by way of an infringement notice under the Act provision referenced.

Prescribed infringement penalty. Regulation 6 fixes the "prescribed infringement penalty" for each prescribed offence by reference to a number of penalty units listed in Column 3 of Schedule 1. The Schedule is the vehicle that pairs specific Act sections (Column 2) with a specified penalty unit amount or a differential amount depending on offender type (Column 3).

Penalty unit framework. The Explanatory Details connect the Regulations to the broader monetary framework. Penalty units are defined in the Sentencing Act 1991 (Endnotes, Explanatory Details). Calculation of the dollar equivalent of the specified number of penalty units is governed by the Monetary Units Act 2004, section 7, as noted in the Explanatory Details. The Regulations therefore leave actual dollar amounts to be determined by the statutory penalty-unit mechanism rather than by fixed dollar figures in the Regulations themselves.

Differential corporate v natural person penalties. Schedule 1 explicitly imposes different infringement penalties for natural persons and bodies corporate for the offences at items 4, 5 and 6 (sections 287(1), 289 and 290 of the Act). The instrument therefore encodes a specific choice to treat corporate offenders differently, with a higher multiple of penalty units for corporate liability than for individual liability for those listed offences.

Statutory cross-reference. The Regulations are made under an express power in the Local Government Act 2020 (regulation 2 states they are made under s 325 of the Act) and they operate solely by reference to provisions of that Act (regulations 5 and 6). They do not create new criminal offences; they designate existing statutory offences as amenable to infringement handling and fix the penalty unit quantum for that handling.

Interpretation rules and legislative form. The Endnotes invoke provisions of the Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984 (ILA) regarding headings, punctuation, legislative items and the construction of amended provisions, which affects how the Schedule and other material in the Statutory Rule must be read (Endnotes, Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984). This means the Schedule’s items are legally incorporated into the Statutory Rule and must be treated as "legislative items" for interpretive purposes.

Temporal reach and administrative dates. The instrument’s commencement date is 1 October 2024 (regulation 3), the making date is 17 September 2024 (Endnotes), and a sunset date is recorded as 17 September 2034 (Endnotes). The Explanatory Details also describe the requirement that the Treasurer fix and publish the value of a penalty unit before 1 June in the preceding financial year, which creates an administrative timetable for calculating dollar amounts of the infringement penalties annually.

Procedural silence. The Regulations do not detail who issues an infringement notice, how notices are served, time limits for payment, how payment is to be made, or how a recipient may contest a notice. Those procedural elements lie in the Local Government Act 2020 (the Act references in regulations 5 and 6) or in other connected law. Practitioners therefore need to read these Regulations in conjunction with the Act and the penalty-unit legislation to understand the full enforcement pathway.

The Regulations affect primarily three categories of persons and entities through the mechanism of designated infringement penalties.

Individuals who commit the listed offences. Any natural person whose conduct falls within the statutory elements of an offence listed in Schedule 1 (for example, conduct that would amount to an offence under section 133(1) of the Act) is within the instrument’s scope. For items 1 to 3 each such natural person may be liable to the infringement penalty of 3 penalty units. For items 4 to 6, natural persons face an infringement penalty of 1 penalty unit if their conduct falls within sections 287(1), 289 or 290 respectively (Schedule 1).

Bodies corporate. Corporations are directly affected and are subject to a higher prescribed infringement penalty for three specified offences (items 4, 5 and 6). Where the offender is a body corporate the Schedule fixes 5 penalty units for each of those three offences, rather than the 1 penalty unit applicable to a natural person (Schedule 1, Column 3). This creates a concrete distinction in potential financial exposure between corporate entities and individuals for those offences.

Local government regulators and enforcers. The Regulations were made under the Local Government Act 2020, and they only operate by reference to that Act’s infringement-notice mechanism (regulations 5 and 6). The instrument thereby affects the exercise of enforcement discretion under the Act, as it limits which offences can be the subject of an infringement notice and what the infringement penalty must be when one is issued. The Regulations do not themselves name which officers or bodies may issue infringement notices; that allocation of authority is made in the Act. The practical effect is that any enforcement official exercising powers under the Act who issues infringement notices will be constrained by the Schedule’s items and the penalty unit amounts set out here.

Councils and public bodies subject to compliance obligations. Local government organisations and their officers are affected to the extent their conduct could constitute an offence listed in the Schedule. Councils must note the potential for infringement notices to be used as an enforcement tool for the listed sections and the differential financial exposure when the legal entity involved is a body corporate.

Advisers and compliance professionals. Lawyers, in-house counsel, compliance officers, and accountants advising clients active in areas governed by the Local Government Act 2020 are affected by the need to map client conduct against the specific sections listed in Schedule 1 to determine potential infringement exposure. They must also factor in the penalty unit conversion mechanics specified in the Explanatory Details (Endnotes).

Third parties with contractual or insurance exposure. Businesses with contractual obligations to avoid regulatory breaches or with insurance policies covering regulatory fines will be affected by the change in liability profile. The Schedule’s differential treatment of corporate offenders for certain offences (items 4-6) can change the expected quantum of loss a corporate must insure against. The Explanatory Details’ dollar conversions for the 2024-25 financial year (value per penalty unit $197.59) make the immediate exposure calculable (Endnotes, Explanatory Details), although that dollar amount will change yearly when the Treasurer fixes the value under the Monetary Units Act 2004.

Public interest and procedural stakeholders. Persons who may receive infringement notices but wish to contest or seek review will be affected by the fact that these Regulations identify which offences may be handled by infringement notices. The Regulations do not set contest or review rights; those are in the Act. Practitioners representing recipients of infringement notices need to consult the Local Government Act 2020 for procedural protections and avenues for challenge.

In sum, the Regulations affect offenders named by section, the entities that may be sanctioned for those offences, the public enforcement architecture that administers infringement notices under the Act, and the downstream advisers and insurers whose work depends on the quantification and treatment of regulatory penalties. The Schedule’s specific mapping and the Explanatory Details governing penalty unit calculation create immediate compliance and financial planning implications for these groups.

The Regulations impose a narrow set of legal consequences and thereby create duties and rights chiefly by reference to the Local Government Act 2020 and the penalty-unit framework noted in the Endnotes. The Regulations themselves do not create new duties of conduct beyond designating existing statutory offences as eligible to be dealt with by way of an infringement notice.

Duty to comply with the substantive offences in the Local Government Act 2020. The practical duty created by the Regulations is that persons must avoid conduct that would constitute the statutory offences enumerated in Schedule 1 if they wish to avoid the fixed infringement penalty quantified in penalty units by these Regulations. The Regulations do not restate the elements of those offences; they require users to consult the relevant sections of the Act (for example, sections 133(1), 133(2), 134(1), 287(1), 289, 290 and 306(1)) to determine the conduct that attracts an infringement penalty (regulation 5 and Schedule 1).

Duty to account for the monetary consequence in planning and governance. Once an infringement notice can be issued for an offence under the Act, the recipient has a practical duty to address the notice in line with the Act’s procedural mechanisms. The Regulations fix the number of penalty units to be imposed for each offence when an infringement notice is issued (regulation 6 and Schedule 1). The Explanatory Details require conversion of penalty units to dollars under the Monetary Units Act 2004 and indicate the applicable dollar value for the 2024-25 financial year (Endnotes, Explanatory Details). Regulatory compliance functions therefore have a duty to incorporate the appropriate penalty-unit amounts into risk registers, budgets and compliance policies.

Rights connected to the Act’s infringement scheme. The Regulations enable specific rights that flow from the Act’s infringement-notice scheme, because they identify which statutory offences may be the subject of an infringement notice (regulation 5). Any procedural rights available to a recipient of an infringement notice, including rights to pay, contest or seek review, derive from the Act rather than these Regulations. The Regulations, by fixing the infringement-penalty quantum, affect the right-holder’s choice architecture; for instance, a recipient will decide whether to pay the infringement amount (converted to dollars by the penalty-unit rules) or pursue the Act’s contestation mechanisms. Practitioners must therefore consult the Local Government Act 2020, specifically the provisions referenced by regulation 5 (not reproduced in these Regulations), to identify the exact procedural rights and time limits.

Differential liability rules. The Schedule creates a rights-and-duty distinction by offender type for items 4, 5 and 6: natural persons face 1 penalty unit, while bodies corporate face 5 penalty units (Schedule 1, Column 3). That differential creates a higher monetary duty on corporate entities for those listed offences and correspondingly affects the discretionary choices of corporate decision makers and their advisers.

Administrative duties on competent authorities implied by the reconciliation with penalty-unit law. The Explanatory Details instruct that the value of a penalty unit must be set by the Treasurer for each financial year and published in the Government Gazette and a Victorian newspaper before 1 June in the preceding financial year (Endnotes, Explanatory Details). That creates an administrative timetable for authorities and regulated entities to convert penalty-unit amounts fixed in the Regulations into dollar figures for budgetary and enforcement purposes.

No procedural provisions included. The Regulations do not themselves give detail about issuing, service, time limits, enforcement conversion or court processes for unpaid infringement penalties. Therefore the "duty to comply" and "rights to challenge" are latent in the Regulations and are operationalised only by reference to the Act’s infringement-notice scheme. Practitioners must therefore treat the Regulations as specifying the monetary quantum for particular offences while recognising that the Act supplies the detailed procedural framework that imposes duties and provides rights in the enforcement context.

The Regulations specify infringement penalties exclusively in terms of penalty units and leave enforcement mechanics to the Local Government Act 2020. The Schedule provides the mapping between particular sections of the Act and the number of penalty units to be imposed where an infringement notice is issued.

Penalty quantum in penalty units. The Schedule sets out seven items:

• Item 1: offence against section 133(1) of the Act , 3 penalty units;
• Item 2: offence against section 133(2) of the Act , 3 penalty units;
• Item 3: offence against section 134(1) of the Act , 3 penalty units;
• Item 4: offence against section 287(1) of the Act , natural person 1 penalty unit, body corporate 5 penalty units;
• Item 5: offence against section 289 of the Act , natural person 1 penalty unit, body corporate 5 penalty units;
• Item 6: offence against section 290 of the Act , natural person 1 penalty unit, body corporate 5 penalty units;
• Item 7: offence against section 306(1) of the Act , 6 penalty units. (Schedule 1, Columns 2-3)

Conversion to dollar amounts. The Explanatory Details instruct that penalty units are defined by section 110 of the Sentencing Act 1991 and that the Monetary Units Act 2004, section 7, governs conversion to dollar amounts (Endnotes, Explanatory Details). For the financial year commencing 1 July 2024 the Explanatory Details provide a penalty unit value of $197.59 and note that the resulting dollar amount may be rounded to the nearest dollar (Endnotes, Explanatory Details). Using that value, the immediate dollar equivalents for the present financial year are:

• 1 penalty unit = $197.59 (rounded to $198, if the rounding rule is applied);
• 3 penalty units = $592.77 (rounded to $593);
• 5 penalty units = $987.95 (rounded to $988);
• 6 penalty units = $1,185.54 (rounded to $1,186). These dollar figures are calculable from the Explanatory Details but are subject to annual change because the Treasurer fixes the penalty unit value for each financial year under the Monetary Units Act 2004 (Endnotes, Explanatory Details).

Differential corporate exposure. For items 4, 5 and 6 the Schedule imposes 1 penalty unit on natural persons and 5 penalty units on bodies corporate, explicitly increasing corporate financial exposure for those specified offences (Schedule 1, Column 3). Practitioners dealing with corporate clients or representing councils should therefore account for the higher monetary exposure faced by corporate entities.

Enforcement process and procedural mechanics. The Regulations themselves do not prescribe who may issue an infringement notice, the form or content of an infringement notice, the period for payment, the process for contesting an infringement notice, or the conversion of an unpaid infringement into court proceedings. Instead, the Regulations operate for the purpose of specific provisions of the Local Government Act 2020 (regulations 5 and 6 reference section 199AAC(1) and 199AAC(3) of the Act). Enforcement mechanisms and procedural safeguards therefore exist in the Act and must be read together with these Regulations to understand practical enforcement pathways.

Publication and administrative timetable for penalty-unit values. The Explanatory Details require that the Treasurer must publish the value of a penalty unit for each financial year in the Government Gazette and a Victorian newspaper before 1 June in the preceding financial year (Endnotes, Explanatory Details). Enforcement agencies, councils and regulated persons must monitor those notices because the dollar equivalent of a fixed number of penalty units will change from year to year.

Sunset and permanence. The Endnotes record a sunset provision by operation of the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994: the Regulations will cease 10 years after making (17 September 2034) unless amended or remade before that date (Endnotes, General information). This temporal limit has enforcement planning implications: enforcement authorities and advisers should note the finite statutory life absent renewal.

Record-keeping and quantification. Because the Regulations fix monetary consequences in penalty units, enforcement practice will require up-to-date conversion to dollars, accurate identification of offender type (natural person or body corporate), and reliable record-keeping to determine whether the prescribed quantum applies. The Regulations therefore impose an indirect administrative enforcement burden on both enforcers and recipients.

The Regulations operate by explicit cross-reference to the Local Government Act 2020 and to the statutory penalty-unit regime contained in other Victorian legislation. Understanding the Regulations requires reading them alongside those statutes and the Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984 rules noted in the Endnotes.

Primary link: Local Government Act 2020. The Regulations are made under section 325 of the Local Government Act 2020 (regulation 2) and operate for the purpose of section 199AAC(1) and section 199AAC(3) of the Act (regulations 5 and 6). The Regulations therefore do not themselves create offence elements or procedural machinery; they designate which offences in the Act can be dealt with by infringement notices and set the infringement penalty quantum for those offences. Practical enforcement, issuance of notices, time limits, contestation rights, conversion to court proceedings and other procedural matters are governed by the Local Government Act 2020 provisions to which these Regulations refer. Readers must consult the Act for those details.

Penalty-unit framework and related Acts. The Explanatory Details make explicit reference to:

• Sentencing Act 1991, section 110 which defines a "penalty unit";
• Monetary Units Act 2004, section 7 which governs calculation of monetary amounts by reference to penalty units and section 5 which empowers the Treasurer to fix the value of a penalty unit for each financial year. The Regulations therefore rely on the statutory machinery in these Acts for converting the unit amounts in Schedule 1 into enforceable dollar sums (Endnotes, Explanatory Details).

Publication requirements and administrative timetable. The Explanatory Details require the Treasurer to publish the penalty-unit value in the Government Gazette and a Victorian newspaper before 1 June preceding the financial year in which the value applies (Endnotes, Explanatory Details). This creates a statutory timetable interacting with the Monetary Units Act 2004 and the procedures for statutory publication.

Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984 (ILA). The Endnotes invoke a suite of ILA rules that affect how the Statutory Rule is read and interpreted: headings, examples, punctuation and provision numbers form part of the Statutory Rule (Endnotes, Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984). The Endnotes also refer to ILA section 39B and section 36B which affect the treatment of amended provisions and the location of legislative items. Practitioners must therefore apply ILA interpretive rules when reading the Schedule and other parts of the Statutory Rule.

Subordinate Legislation Act 1994 (sunset). The Endnotes cite section 5 of the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994 to explain the instrument’s sunset ten years after making (Endnotes, General information). That interaction imposes a temporal limit on the Regulations absent further legislative action and interacts with the broader statutory review and revocation regime under the Subordinate Legislation Act.

Absence of expressed interaction with enforcement or criminal procedure Acts. The Regulations do not reference the Crimes Act, the Criminal Procedure Act or the Infringements Act. That omission suggests those procedural interactions are supplied either by the Local Government Act 2020, by general infringement law or by administrative practice. Practitioners should therefore determine whether use of the infringement-notice mechanism will engage other Acts that set out court procedures or enforcement approaches.

Practical consequence: read together. The Regulations are short and deliberately relational. Their legal effect depends on reading them together with the Local Government Act 2020 for substantive and procedural law, and with the Sentencing Act 1991 and Monetary Units Act 2004 for penalty calculation. The Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984 and the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994 govern interpretive and temporal aspects of these Regulations. Failure to read the cross-referenced statutes will yield an incomplete picture of enforcement mechanics and rights.

The Regulations are a newly made Statutory Rule with no recorded amendments at the time of their Version No. 001 publication. The Endnotes contain a "Table of Amendments" (Endnotes, Table of Amendments) which records that there are no amendments made to the Local Government (Infringement Notices) Regulations 2024 by statutory rules, subordinate instruments or Acts. The instrument is therefore current in its original form as at 1 October 2024 (regulation 3 and Version No. 001).

Making and commencement dates. The Endnotes record that the Regulations were made on 17 September 2024 by the Governor in Council under section 325 of the Local Government Act 2020 and came into operation on 1 October 2024 (Endnotes, General information). The Version No. 001 reflects that the text provided is the initial version of the Statutory Rule as at that commencement date.

Sunset and review mechanics. The Regulations will sunset 10 years after the date of making on 17 September 2034 under section 5 of the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994 (Endnotes, General information). That sunset date creates a statutory deadline for any legislative review, renewal or amendment that the responsible Minister or Governor in Council might undertake prior to automatic cessation. Practitioners and affected parties should therefore monitor any review processes or scheduled legislative programs that could amend or replace the instrument before the 2034 sunset.

Tracking future amendments. The Endnotes direct readers to the official Victorian legislation website (www.legislation.vic.gov.au) for up-to-date legislative information, including Bills, Acts and current versions of subordinate instruments (Endnotes, General information). Because the Regulations operate by reference to the Local Government Act 2020 and to penalty-unit values fixed annually, amendments may ultimately arise either from changes to the Act (for example, to section 199AAC or section 325) or from changes to the Regulations themselves. There may also be consequential changes if the Monetary Units Act 2004 or the Sentencing Act 1991 are amended in ways that alter penalty-unit calculation or definition.

No recorded legislative amendments to date. The "Table of Amendments" explicitly states there are no amendments recorded against this Statutory Rule at the time of publication (Endnotes, Table of Amendments). That absence means the Schedule mapping and the penalty-unit figures set out in this instrument are those that practitioners should apply until any amendment is made and published in the official registers.

Implication for compliance and counsel. Because the instrument is unamended and in its original form, compliance advice and internal policy updates should reflect the Schedule as drafted. However, given the temporal limit imposed by the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994 and the annual variation in penalty-unit dollar values, advisers should implement procedures to update client guidance when the Treasurer publishes a new penalty-unit value or when any future amendment is made to the Regulations or the underlying Act.

The Regulations themselves do not contain or cite any case law. The instrument’s Endnotes include a "Table of Amendments" and "Explanatory details" but do not record any judicial consideration of the Regulations or any listed precedent. The absence of a litigation history in the statutory text means there are no cases named in the instrument and no judicial interpretations recorded within this document that alter its operation.

Implication of absence of litigation history. Because the Regulations are new and the text records no amendments or judicial consideration, there is no body of jurisprudence supplied by this instrument to assist interpretation of the Schedule’s mapping or application. Practitioners must therefore rely on the text itself, the Local Government Act 2020 (to which the Regulations refer), the Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984 rules cited in the Endnotes, and any relevant case law that interprets the underlying Act sections or the general infringement-notice regime. The Regulations do not purport to create any novel legal topic that would already attract independent judicial consideration.

Potential litigation touchpoints. In practice, disputes could arise over the interpretation of the underlying Act provisions listed in the Schedule (for example, what conduct constitutes an offence under the cited sections), over whether an infringement notice was properly issued under the Act’s procedures, over the classification of the offender as a natural person or a body corporate for the purpose of the Schedule’s differential penalties, and over the application of penalty-unit conversion rules. Any such litigation would thus typically cite the Local Government Act 2020 and possibly statutes governing infringement notices and penalty units rather than the Regulations alone. The instrument does not delineate procedural or evidential standards; those are matters likely to be litigated under the Act.

No recorded appeals or cases. As of Version No. 001 there are no entries in the Endnotes or Table of Amendments indicating appeals, challenges, or judicial review outcomes that specifically engage these Regulations. Users requiring precedential guidance will need to monitor subsequent litigation that engages either the Act sections listed by the Schedule or the use of infringement notices under the Act more generally.

Advice for litigators and litigated parties. Because the Regulations are brief and cross-referential, litigators should frame arguments around the text of the Local Government Act 2020 (particularly section 199AAC and the sections listed in Schedule 1) and should prepare to address statutory interpretation issues under the Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984 rules cited in the Endnotes. The Regulations may be relied on in pleadings solely to show that, for the statutory purposes specified, a particular offence has been prescribed as an infringement offence and that a specific number of penalty units applies.

The Regulations are short and tightly framed, but there are a number of practical traps and implementation risks that flow directly from their form and their interaction with other statutes. These "gotchas" are matters practitioners should check and account for when advising clients or designing compliance systems.

They prescribe offences but do not reproduce them. The Regulations list sections of the Local Government Act 2020 (for example, sections 133(1), 287(1), 306(1)) as prescribed infringement offences (regulation 5 and Schedule 1). The Regulations do not reproduce the elements, defences, or scope of those sections. A common misstep would be to rely on the Schedule alone without consulting the full text of the Local Government Act 2020 to determine whether a given fact pattern meets the statutory offence elements.

Procedural silence on issuing and contesting notices. The Regulations fix infringement penalties but do not set out who may issue an infringement notice, how it must be served, the period for payment, or contestation procedures. Those procedures are in the Local Government Act 2020 and possibly other statutes. Advisers should not assume the existence, form or timelines of contestation rights from the Regulations themselves.

Differential corporate penalties for items 4-6. For offences under sections 287(1), 289 and 290 the Schedule imposes 1 penalty unit for natural persons and 5 penalty units for bodies corporate (Schedule 1, Column 3). Two practical risks follow. First, misclassification of the offender (natural person v body corporate) can lead to materially different fines. Second, corporate clients may face substantially higher exposure that should be reflected in governance, indemnity, and insurance arrangements. Practitioners should confirm corporate status at the time of the alleged contravention.

Annual variation in dollar amounts. The Regulations express penalties in penalty units. The Explanatory Details show the value per penalty unit for the financial year commencing 1 July 2024 is $197.59 (Endnotes, Explanatory Details), but the Treasurer fixes an annual value under the Monetary Units Act 2004. A common error is to compute or communicate dollar figures based on the 2024-25 value without caveating that the figure will change annually and must be checked against the Treasurer’s publication.

Rounding rule. The Explanatory Details disclose that the calculated penalty may be rounded to the nearest dollar (Endnotes, Explanatory Details). Practitioners and enforcement officers must ensure that their arithmetic and internal systems apply the rounding rule correctly when converting penalty units to dollar amounts.

Sunset date. The Regulations will sunset on 17 September 2034 under the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994 (Endnotes, General information). Failure to note the sunset could lead to incorrect assumptions about permanence. Any compliance regime or template letter that assumes these exact penalty unit amounts will remain in force indefinitely should incorporate review triggers to update rules if the Regulations are remade, amended or allowed to expire.

Interpretation Act technicalities. The Endnotes cite provisions of the Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984 that affect headings, punctuation, legislative items and provision numbering (Endnotes, Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984). Misreading the Schedule as a loose list rather than as a formal legislative item may produce interpretive mistakes, especially where cross-referenced amendments or later insertions occur.

No express link to infringement enforcement Acts. The Regulations do not cite the Infringements Act or other specific enforcement procedural statutes. Advisers should not assume that general infringement enforcement or collection processes applicable in other regulatory contexts automatically apply here without verifying the Act’s procedures and any enabling linkages.

Dependence on the underlying Act. Because regulations 5 and 6 explicitly operate for the purposes of sections 199AAC(1) and 199AAC(3) of the Local Government Act 2020, any change to those sections in the Act will directly affect the Regulations’ operation. For example, if the Act’s provisions governing infringement notices are amended, the practical effect or usefulness of these Regulations could change overnight.

No details about cumulative penalties or multiple offences. The Schedule sets a penalty unit quantum per offence listed. It does not state whether multiple breaches attract multiple infringement notices, whether there is aggregation or daily penalty treatment, or whether combined offences lead to a higher maximum under any other statutory scheme. Practitioners need to verify those aggregation rules in the Act.

In short, the principal gotchas arise from the Regulations’ brevity, their reliance on cross-referenced statutes for procedural mechanics, the corporate-vs-individual penalty split for certain offences, the annual variability of dollar amounts, and the ten-year sunset. Each of these points can have concrete financial and procedural consequences if overlooked.

Compliance in this context means two interlocking actions: (1) assess whether conduct falls within the offences listed in Schedule 1 of these Regulations; and (2) if an infringement notice is received or is a realistic enforcement outcome, deal with the notice and the financial consequence in accordance with the Local Government Act 2020 and the monetary conversion rules in the Monetary Units Act and Sentencing Act. The Regulations themselves provide the penalty-unit mapping that must be applied.

Practical immediate steps

1. Map internal conduct to the listed sections. Identify whether any business or individual activities fall within the statutory elements of the sections cited in Schedule 1: sections 133(1), 133(2), 134(1), 287(1), 289, 290 and 306(1) of the Local Government Act 2020. The Regulations do not define those offences; compliance requires reference to the full text of the Local Government Act 2020 to determine conduct triggers.

2. Confirm entity status at time of potential contravention. For offences at items 4, 5 and 6, the penalty differs materially between natural persons (1 penalty unit) and bodies corporate (5 penalty units). Organisations must confirm whether the putative offender is a corporate entity or a natural person and ensure corporate governance arrangements minimise the risk that corporate exposure arises through delegation or vicarious liability.

3. Update risk registers and budgets for penalty-unit amounts. Incorporate the penalty-unit quantities in Schedule 1 into the organisation’s compliance risk register and budget modelling. For the 2024-25 financial year the Explanatory Details specify a penalty unit of $197.59; apply rounding rules as necessary, but put in place processes to update figures annually when the Treasurer publishes a new penalty-unit value (Endnotes, Explanatory Details).

4. Monitor Treasurer publications and Gazette notices. The Monetary Units Act 2004 requires the Treasurer to publish the penalty-unit value for each financial year in the Government Gazette and a Victorian newspaper before 1 June preceding the financial year (Endnotes, Explanatory Details). Compliance officers should subscribe to official publication feeds or delegate monitoring responsibility to ensure the correct dollar conversion is used.

5. Design internal procedures for receipt and response to infringement notices. Because the Regulations only fix the monetary quantum, organisations should prepare a standard operating procedure for handling any infringement notice that includes: immediate factual review, identity verification (natural person v body corporate), legal review of whether the notice was properly issued under the Act, decision pathways on paying or contesting, and record-keeping for potential aggregation or repeated offences.

6. Check insurance and indemnity arrangements. Verify whether any directors and officers liability, public liability or regulatory penalties insurance covers infringement penalties, and confirm whether corporate indemnities run to the entity for contraventions that may incur higher corporate penalties.

7. Train frontline staff and enforcement-facing personnel. Ensure staff who manage interactions that could give rise to the listed offences understand the relevant conduct standards in the Local Government Act 2020. Given the Regulations’ focus on particular sections, tailor training to the specific operational areas implicated by those sections.

8. Liaise with legal counsel for procedural contestation. The Regulations do not provide contestation procedures; those are in the Local Government Act 2020. Counsel should be retained or consulted to advise on the Act’s dispute mechanisms and on tactical choices between payment and legal challenge when an infringement notice is issued.

9. Maintain version-control and review triggers. Because the Regulations have a sunset date and because penalty-unit values change annually, implement a compliance review trigger to re-evaluate policies whenever the Treasurer publishes a new penalty-unit value, when the Local Government Act 2020 is amended, or when these Regulations are themselves amended or remade.

10. Document mitigation and remediation. Where conduct may have already occurred, document remediation steps promptly. If an infringement notice is issued, contemporaneous documentary evidence of mitigation or remedial action may be relevant in any contestation phase under the Act.

Record-keeping and audit trails

• Keep copies of any infringement notices and associated correspondence. The Regulations fix the financial quantum; procedural disputes will turn on notice content and service, which must be recorded.
• Log the date of any alleged contravention and the identity of the alleged offender to determine which penalty quantum applies and whether multiple incidents might lead to cumulative exposure.
• Record the conversion calculation from penalty units to dollars and the Treasurer’s published value used for that conversion.

Coordination with enforcement authorities

• If acting for a local council or enforcement body, ensure the authority issuing infringement notices applies the Schedule faithfully, uses the correct penalty-unit value for the relevant financial year, and establishes internal controls to classify offenders correctly as natural persons or corporations.
• If advising regulated persons, establish a point of contact to receive notices and a rapid escalation protocol to legal counsel.

Legal checks

• Before paying or contesting a notice, obtain or prepare a legal assessment that references the relevant sections of the Local Government Act 2020 (the elements of the listed offences) and assesses procedural compliance with the Act’s infringement-notice regime.
• Verify any rights of review, appeal or internal reconsideration available under the Act to avoid forfeiting procedural remedies.

By following these concrete steps and maintaining an explicit linkage between the Schedule’s penalty-unit list and the underlying statutory elements and procedural rules in the Local Government Act 2020 and the penalty-unit legislation, an organisation or adviser can operationalise the Regulations’ obligations and respond to infringement notices in an informed and defensible manner.