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Alice Council plans $130 fine for penniless beggars
ISSUE 183 - 07 Aug 2009
ALICE SPRINGS
ISSUE 183, August 6, 2009: People begging for spare change in Alice Springs could be slapped with a $130 fine.
So strange is the controversial new by-law, proposed by the Alice Springs Town Council, it has been described by Northern Territory Chief Minister Paul Henderson as "wacky" and "a stunt".
Fining people for begging simply "beggars belief", he said.
The council has voted to put 89 new by-laws on public display this week which, if passed, would give council rangers powers to fine people who are begging $130.
"That's up to them to figure out how to pay it," said the Director of Corporate and Community Services Craig Catchlove.
"We invoice people or give them the fine if they don't pay it within a certain amount of time...
"But the bottom line is we don't want people begging in this town and there needs to be some way of stopping the practise."
Not all Territorians are as enamoured with the plan, which Jonathan Pilbrow, from the NT Council of Social Services, said created an "us and them mentality".
"What will be achieved by fining people who probably have a limited capacity to pay, which is what drives them to beg in the first place?" he said.
"Even if they can find the money to meet the fine it means they're going to be less well off the next fortnight and probably more likely to beg again.
"This is a sad response to the issue of homelessness and poverty in Alice Springs."
Mr Henderson was even less diplomatic.
"Certainly it beggars belief to think that somebody that's out there so impoverished and destitute that they're begging for money can afford to pay the fine."
Another measure causing controversy is a ban on camping in the dry Todd River bed, which is regularly used by homeless or visiting Aboriginal people.
In a public council meeting, alderman Jane Clark reminded her colleagues the eyes of the nation were on the NT and its handling of Indigenous affairs.
"The whole of Australia is up in arms about the degradation and sad situation that so many people live in the Northern Territory," she said.
"We need to have a compassionate attitude towards people who are begging and why they are doing so and how do we define that." - AAP
• SEE ALSO: 'Racism a blanket in Alice Springs'.
 
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