SA moves to ban ticketless parking fines after Adelaide’s AI camera cars issue almost 70,000

South Australian drivers who get a parking fine will have to find it on their windscreen or receive it in person under rules the state government announced on Sunday.

Premier Peter Malinauskas said councils would no longer be able to mail out fines after a camera-equipped car drives past and records an alleged offence. Instead, a council inspector would have to leave a physical ticket on the vehicle or hand it to the driver at the time.

“If a council wants to fine someone for a parking offence, it should give them a ticket at the time,” Mr Malinauskas said.

He said the technology itself was not being banned. Councils could still use cameras and AI to detect offences, but the decision to fine someone would have to be made and delivered by a person on the spot. “It’s the practice of the car and the AI machine only forming the judgement that we are regulating out,” he said.

What problem is the government trying to fix?

Timing and evidence. When a fine arrives in the mail more than a week later, the premier said, the driver loses the chance to understand why they were fined and to gather evidence if they want to challenge it. A council report has found Park Safe fines can take more than a week to reach a vehicle’s registered owner.

The government says there is an important difference between parking enforcement and road safety enforcement, because parking fines are mostly issued to stationary cars. That is why the change does not touch red-light or mobile phone detection cameras.

How big is Adelaide’s camera-car program?

The City of Adelaide’s Park Safe program uses a car fitted with roof cameras to scan bus zones, no-stopping zones, yellow lines, taxi and permit zones and Park Lands parking. Almost 70,000 fines have been issued through it.

The growth has been steep. The program issued 2,508 fines in 2022-23, 31,373 in 2024-25 and 27,104 in the first three quarters of 2025-26. The council has planned to extend it to paid bays and time-limited free parking, and Mitcham, Salisbury, Burnside and Mount Barker councils have proposed similar systems.

A recent council report found that, on average, 25 per cent of contested fines were withdrawn this year after a request for review. The council has said trained officers review every image before a fine is issued.

What do councils say?

The Local Government Association of South Australia says it was not consulted. Its president, Heather Holmes-Ross, called that “unusual” and asked why parking was being singled out when the same kind of software is used for red-light and phone-detection cameras. She said councils trialling the technology keep human oversight and that accurate, efficient enforcement was better for everyone.

The government says it will now consult the association and other groups.

Does this happen anywhere else?

Mr Malinauskas said the change was modelled on New South Wales, which ended ticketless parking fines from 1 July 2025 and now requires a physical ticket at the time.

What does it mean for drivers?

Parking rules and the fines themselves do not change. Councils can still fine people for parking illegally, and limited exemptions will apply where leaving a ticket could put an officer at risk. What changes is how the fine reaches you: on the car or in your hand, not weeks later in the letterbox.

For now, nothing has changed. Fines issued under the current system remain payable, and drivers who think a fine is wrong can still ask the council for a review.