Cabinet material relating to 2021 and COVID-19 Public Health Response Amendment Act 2021 Commencement Order 2021

Proactive release of Ministerial decision-making documents.

Publication Date: 
07 December 2021

These papers relate to the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Infringement Offences) Regulations 2021 (the regulations). The regulations are enabled by the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020 (the Act) as recently amended by the COVID-19 Public Health Response Amendment Bill (No 2) 2021.

The Regulations set three classes of infringement fees which are based on the risk of the breach and have corresponding penalties:

  • Low risk – breaches of administrative requirements, or requirements where the worst potential outcome has a low likelihood of transmission or spread of COVID-19
  • Medium risk – breaches of requirements where the worst potential outcome is a possibility of transmitting or spreading COVID-19 or limiting the capability of the COVID-19 response. Most infringement offences will fall into this category.
  • High risk – breaches of requirements where the risk of transmitting or spreading COVID-19 is probable.

From 4 December 2021, the new regulations introduce the following penalties for the different classes:

Class of offence

Infringement fee for individual

Infringement fee for bodies corporate

Low risk

$500

$1500

Medium risk

$1000

$4000

High risk

$4000

$12000

The regulations also assign an infringement offence class and corresponding penalty to each infringement offence contained in the Act:

  • Section 32P(1) (the requirement to remain in the assigned place of isolation or quarantine): High risk
  • Section 32P(2) (the requirement to comply with direction or conditions imposed by the chief executive): High risk
  • Section 32T(1) (the requirement to provide contact information): Low risk
  • Section 32T(2) (the requirement to update contact details that change): Low risk.

Infringement offence classes and penalties are specified for other infringement offences in the applicable COVID-19 Order or Rule.

The following documents are also available for public reference:

Ministerial decision-making documents

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