Anyone working in Brisbane CBD is likely to have witnessed the pathetic sight of a police officer leaping out from a hiding place to book some poor unsuspecting pleb for jaywalking across a quiet city street (the George St-Queen St mall intersection is one of their favourite spots).  At $30 a ticket, this is a nice little earner for the State Government.

It’s little surprise then that the latest Report on State Finances reveals a big increase in fines revenue to the Queensland Government – with fines revenue up 17% to $285 million in 2009-10 (p. 6-34 of the Report).  Based on CPI and population growth, you would expect total fines to have increased by 5%, so the Queensland Police Service deserves a commendation from Andrew Fraser.

With $285 million of total fines, that’s an average of $63 in fines for each Queenslander, which is roughly about two jaywalking tickets each.