Speed camera fines debated at Malanda public meeting

Mr Knuth said many attendees were asking how placing a camera on a road that's in a low crash area could be justified, when the government rhetoric was that they were there to change behaviour and save lives.

"How is giving an emergency nurse seven fines, or a pensioner visiting his wife in the nearby aged care facility going to change people's behaviour if they are not notified until a month after the alleged offence," Mr Knuth said.

"This is purely about revenue raising. I have serious concerns about not only the criteria used to determine where these devices are placed, but also the process in place to test these devices every day they are at these locations."

He told the crowd at the meeting he'd asked for evidence of a certificate of calibration of the camera in question but that hadn't been forthcoming.

"Nothing will go back to local roads that need to be fixed," he added.

Atherton solicitor Bradley Bragg was on hand to provide information on options for people, such as making a fine enquiry and whether they needed to seek legal advice, or apply for a compassionate licence.

He said information had been sought from the Department of Transport and Main Roads on the placement and deployment of the device, and information garnered from the manufacturers regarding operating procedures.

Another reason for coming together on the weekend had been to support people in the community impacted by the camera's activity, without the resources to find information on how to address multiple fines.

Tablelands business owner Cirsty Bonadio said the ideal outcome from the meeting would be to prove the camera wasn't calibrated correctly, and for departmental and government acknowledgement that that they're not meant to be a money-making scheme, but a safety issue.

"If you're speeding, you should be notified straight away, not a month later, when you can't do anything about it," she said.

"In 16 years our business has only received two fines for speeding - to get five in a week was just not right.

"It's just creating a lot of income.

"The minister's representative says there were 342 fines above 20 kilometres an hour - that equates to over $220,000.

"For a community of 2500 people, that's just ridiculous."

KAP leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter has also received complaints about a speed camera located at the edge of a 60km zone, at the eastern entrance of Torrens Creek, a small town on the Flinders Highway, three hours west of Townsville.

Residents have advised this has since been moved.

Mr Katter said a key criteria for the placement of a speed camera, according to DTMR, was that at least two speed-related accidents need to have occurred in the general area within the last five years.

"But data freely available on the Department of Transport website shows that no accidents have occurred on that stretch of highway in the more than 20 years the data goes back," he said.

"You'd have to wonder why the department would put a speed camera at that precise spot, because based on their own data, it had nothing to do with accident history.

"And if that area really was a high incident blackspot, the department didn't have a lot of courage in their convictions, moving it as soon as we started making noise about it.

"The department doesn't even pretend these cameras will improve road safety.

"They know that if you want to maximise revenue from a speed camera you place it where drivers are most likely to be ramping.

"Which is why speed cameras are now being found on the margins of the small communities along the Flinders Highway, including Prairie, Julia Creek, Hughenden, Cloncurry, Torrens Creek, Charters Towers and locations on the Tablelands."

Mr Katter said department statistics showed that of the 34 accidents within a 20km radius of Torrens Creek in the last 20 years, half were on the Torrens Creek-Aramac Road when a section remained unsealed.

"The most serious accidents are occurring many kilometres away from where these cameras are located, frequently on unsealed shire roads, for which local governments are given precious little funding," he said.

"In the bush speed camera placement has nothing to do with actual accident history.

"Placing the cameras in high incident areas along the Flinders Highway would immediately draw attention to the atrocious condition of the Flinders Highway, especially either side of Hughenden where the road conditions wreak havoc.

"The cynicism needs to be called out, and those responsible hung out to dry, because it's doing nothing to improve public safety, while doing everything to ruin the lives of people in the bush.

"If you really want to improve road safety then fix the bloody roads."