When you receive the infringement notice for allegedly contravening the law, you basically have three options:
1/ Pay the fine
2/ Seek internal review
3/ Go to court
Provided that you genuinely believe that you have not contravened the law or that you contravened them in such exceptional circumstances for which it is unfair or injustice for the infringement to be enforced, you are only left with option 2 or 3.
Think about it, the enforcing agency (e.g.: police or council or ticket inspector) would have no incentive to seriously consider the internal review and instead, just reject it and direct the matter to court anyway. The reason being is that they know that people will be more reluctant to go to court than them. Firstly, regarding the cost, it is the opportunity cost of the enormous amount of time it takes. To the agency, it is just a normal working day but to an individual, it is a wasted day of not working and not being paid; and it is not just one day but maybe many days. Furthermore, the most the agency lose is the amount of the fine, which they could have lost anyway had they withdrawn the fine at the internal review stage. However, to us, it can be more than the amount of the fine and by saying more, I mean 2 or 3 times higher (the amount fo fine is always less than the maximum amount of fine the court can order). Effectively, the agency don’t bear any financial risks at all when they go to court and an individual bears a large amount of such financial risk.
Furthermore, it can be about the criminal record if the individual is found guilty by the court. On the other hand, the enforcing agency stand to lose nothing from the outcome of the court as there is no criminal record or court proceeding recorded against the agency or the officer in duty if they are found to be wrong.
Effectively, the enforcing agency can just ignore (by not seriously consider the matter upon request for review) and go to court free of mind knowing that they have nothing more to lose. Therefore, why should they withdraw it and instead, why not just try theirluck at court? On the other hand, going to court for an individual is a nightmare in terms of costs of time as well as your police check history. This will translate to the enforcing agency's behaviour in the public, being that they can just go around, fining people randomly and tell them if they have any questions, just go to court to challenge as they don’t care.
I recently challenged my fine with the police officer, who refused to give any explanations whatsoever and instead just tell me to f*** off and challenge in court if I want to (of course, in a polite but un-cooperative manner).
I believe that had there been any additional detriments to the officer in duty if they are found wrong in issuing the fine (maybe criminal record against him…) or had there been a compulsory arbitrage session, the enforcing agency would have been more responsible, carefully and sensible to issue the fine in the first place as well as in the internal review stage.
Do you think the current appealing process for the infringement notice is fair or just a way for revenue raising?
The enforcing agency does have incentive to internally review:
Departments have budgets and these budgets are checked, if there is an officer or area department that spends too much time in court or has a lot more complaints than others than it will be noticed. If they have too many court cases that they lose, it will especially be noticed.
Although unfair it would be much worse to have it so that people can just challenge the system without some consequence. Or else anyone getting a fine might as well take it to court and that will really cost a lot of money. There should be some barrier in the way, and the incentive that the government uses is money (or gaol time).
I think the poll question you raised is a false dilemma but I chose my answer according to the spirit of the question. My actual answer would be that it is unfair (because the world is unfair and hugely unfair in your favour since you are in Australia) and revenue raising (because it literally raises revenue) and it needs changes (because everything needs to be evaluated for changes or else society gets stuck and obstinate) but it is a system that works for the majority of people and it is not unreasonable for exceptions to be dealt with in court.