‘Incredible imbalance’: NSW Covid fines during Delta higher in disadvantaged suburbs

Small towns with high Indigenous populations and western Sydney suburbs that are home to the most socioeconomically disadvantaged residents in the city bore the brunt of Covid fines during the ramp-up in enforcement during last year's Delta outbreak.

A Guardian analysis of data obtained by the Redfern Legal Centre under freedom of information laws shows that small towns including Walgett, Brewarrina and Wilcannia had the most fines per capita over the entire outbreak.

Approximately six people out of 100 in Walgett were fined for Covid breaches, according to the data, with Brewarrina seeing five in 100 residents fined and Wilcannia, with a population of 956 people, seeing over four in 100 people fined.

Areas with greater socioeconomic disadvantage had higher rates of fines per 1,000 people on average.

The most advantaged suburbs had a rate three times less than the most disadvantaged suburbs.

Only two suburbs in the state were hit with more than $1m in fines between July and October last year: Liverpool and Mount Druitt in Sydney's west. Residents in Blacktown were hit with almost $730,000 in fines.

The figures are much larger compared with many wealthier eastern and inner west suburbs, such as Bondi, which was hit with $83,900 in fines in the same period, or Rozelle, which was hit with just $43,200.