How low-level speeding fines are filling this state's coffers

The Queensland Government became $337 million richer last financial year thanks in part to fines from speed cameras, with a vast majority of motorists pinged for going less than 11km/h above the limit.

In the Department of Transport and Main Roads’ Annual Report for the 2023-24 financial year, the State Government announced it made $464.3 million from its Camera Detected Offence Program (CDOP) across the 12-month period.

Factoring in administrative and operational costs of $127.3 million, the state ended up with a $337 million profit – though the figure could’ve been much higher.

The CDOP was initially estimated to bring in $503.6 million throughout the 2023-24 financial year, though this figure was revised in May to $409 million – $55 million less than the final figure, according to the report.

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The financial year prior (2022-23) it collected $465.8 million from the CDOP, itself up 70 per cent on the $274.5 million collected in 2021-22.

In total, 608,794 speeding fines were handed out throughout the 2023-24 financial year, with mobile speed cameras accounting for the vast majority – 74 per cent to be exact – of the infringement detectors.

Fixed speed cameras were next, responsible for issuing 24 per cent of speeding fines, while the state’s point-to-point average speed cameras accounted for slightly less than two per cent of the figure.

It may come as no surprise that more than half of all motorists who received a speeding fine were travelling at no more than 10km/h above the posted speed limit, with 63 per cent of infringements handed out for this offence.

More than a third of motorists caught speeding were travelling between 11km/h and 20km/h in excess of the limit, with the remaining few fines split between the three categories of 21-30km/h, 31-40km/h and 40km/h-plus.

The state’s point-to-point speed cameras served up an interesting figure, being the only mode of detection which didn’t see the most fines for the lowest threshold, with a surprising 77 per cent of motorists instead being caught between 11-20km/h above the limit.

In May, the Queensland Government revised its estimated revenue for the CDOP in 2024-25 from $533.7 million to $466.5 million, however given how much it overshot the lower figure last financial year, it could still take in more than $500 million.

Despite the State Government hailing the decrease as a sign of changing behaviours, Queensland’s rolling 12-month road toll is up 1.4 per cent on last year, currently standing at 288 deaths to the end of August 2024.

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