Tasmania's premier has pledged to stop the government's practice of publishing the names and full addresses of individuals with outstanding fines, with some as low as $117 and most under $500.
Community service organisations have spoken out urging the government to stop the "name and shame" list which is updated weekly.
The list has almost 5,000 names, including those who list their addresses as being outside Tasmania.
Tasmania is the only state or territory that uses the broad "name and shame" measure as a form of sanction, raising concerns about privacy and the potential for vigilante-style justice.
Premier Jeremy Rockliff said he did not like the practice.
"I would encourage people, of course, to pay back their fines, I would always encourage people to pay back their fines," he said.
"This is not the way to do it and we'll fix it."
The Justice Department's use of "publication of name" as a punishment for people in fine arrears more than doubled from 634 in 2020-21, to 1,437 in 2021-22.
John Hooper, who is the chief executive officer of Tasmania's No Interest Loan Scheme, said there were many circumstances where people would be unable to pay back fines, and he described the list as a "blunt" form of punishment.
"It reads almost like blackmail, 'get your name off this list, pay this fine'," he said.
"They're publishing people's addresses, so the privacy stuff around this is quite shocking to tell you the truth.
"I'm assuming the Justice Department has very carefully vetted this for AVO (apprehended violence order) and other things, because the safety implications for people are quite real.
"I get the intent of it, large companies that are avoiding debts and all that sort of thing, and some are serial offenders and won't pay, but when you look at the numbers — $140, $190, are a lot of these debts — it's one fine that hasn't been paid, you end up being publicly outed on a website list."
Tasmania's Monetary Penalties Enforcement Service (MPES) published the list on the state's Justice Department website.
The law states the MPES director "may" authorise the publication of name, address and drivers licence of individual debtors, meaning there is a level of discretion. Drivers licence details are not published on the list at the moment.
Tasmania on its own
The Northern Territory also publishes the names and suburbs of debtors, but only those above $10,000, and their full addresses are not listed.
Western Australia publishes the names and suburbs of the top 100 people in fine arrears, with the lowest amount $60,910.
In 2021, the South Australian government announced plans to name and shame companies that have avoided paying fines, but not individuals.
NSW and Victoria name and shame businesses that have breached food safety laws.
Community Legal Centres Tasmania policy officer Ben Bartl said Tasmania was on its own in choosing to apply such a broad policy to individuals.
"Tasmania's fine defaulters list is nothing more than a name and shame exercise that stigmatises and further marginalises people," he said.
"We all have rights to privacy. That can be taken away through legislative means. And in this case, parliament has decided that it's more important to name and shame fine defaulters, than ensure their personal privacy."
Mr Bartl said other public government databases — such as the WhitePages — did not have the assumption that those listed had done something wrong.
Greens want overhaul
Greens' spokeswoman, Rosalie Woodruff said in an age of scammers and data hackers the practice was opening people up to potential privacy abuses.
"We definitely need an overhaul of these laws, because publishing sensitive information of nearly 5,000 people is grotesque and wrong. It's a potential security issue for individual people and the other people they live with," she said.
"The government's stated intent is to harm people's rental security and their credit rating. It's appalling in a rental crisis, that the government is deliberately setting out to harm people's rental security."
A Department of Justice spokesperson said the listing of names and addresses was a last resort, and the numbers increased last year due to the measure being scaled back during the COVID period.
"The address of enforcement debtors is published as a means of reducing the chance of an individual with the same name being mistakenly identified as the 'enforcement debtor'," the spokesperson said.
"Records of persons currently subject to this enforcement sanction are cross checked against details of persons who are currently covered by the protection of a Police Family Violence Order (PFVO) or Family Violence Order (FVO)."
