Paul.
AFAIK, it depends on the state. Victoria's cameras are run by a private company. According to the contract, the company gets penalised by the government if they don't meet a certain quota of tickets per month, and gets bonuses from the government if it exceeds it's quota. It stinks. Unfortunately it is the nature of Australians not to bother kicking up a fuss, hence most complaints about speed cameras don't get far beyond the local pub, hence why state governments can get away with such unfair systems.
Once snapped by a camera, being let off is as rare as rocking horse poo. The Vic camera network was shut down for several months last year at one point because a camera photographed an old plant traveling at over 170km-h on a slight incline. After a vigorous amount of testing on a flat track, nobody could get the car to do more than 158km-h I think it was. Even with this evidence the charge wasn't dropped immediately, but eventually common sense prevailed, and it was dropped in the end.
I haven't heard about Professor Loony having any shares in the camera companies. If the media had got hold of it they would've had a field day.
