THE NAKED CITY – BEGGARS CAN BE CHOOSERS

Bob, that’s not his real name, has been a professional panhandler (a.k.a. beggar) for well over a decade. His usual haunt is the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, where wallets are fatter and hearts sometimes more persuasive, and he has a regular week day spot in the thick of Double Bay. On Saturdays he can be sighted at a number of city TABs, splashing his ill-gotten gains and often sporting a brand new pair of Nike sports shoes.

His is the kind of story A Current Affair relishes as an expose of the bad side of begging, one well illustrated around five years ago by the somewhat notorious Ken Johnson. The bearded and burly Ken was a daily fixture outside Myers in George Street, shamelessly boasting that he pulled in as much as $400 for a “good day’s work”. He quickly became a media celebrity, vilified in the tabloids and on Fox News, although these days his whereabouts are unknown. A fully paid for holiday house on the Central Coast perhaps?

Bob and Ken are amongst a number of modern day mendicants who give panhandling a bad name, and unfortunately tend to tar all street beggars with the same brush. A “Begging Engagement Program” conducted recently by the Melbourne City Council discovered that “homelessness” was the overidding reason why people were motivated to beg in the street. Only one in four surveyed admitted that they were doing so to buy food, alcohol or tobacco.

The right of somebody to beg for money in the street, regardless of their motives, is obviously a highly emotive issue. In Victoria, begging is illegal under the summary offences act and can attract a fine around $100. Ironically, some beggars then need to go out and beg to pay their fine. In NSW, in particular the City of Sydney, begging is not illegal and the Council has endorsed a policy of ongoing tolerance, despite some Councillors acknowledging that a number of the city’s beggars are professional panhandlers.

There are anomalies of course and many will remember the complete absence of street beggars, and homeless people for that matter, during the Sydney Olympics. Just what happened to them during this period still remains a mystery, although rumours persist that they were bussed en masse to an out of town gulag for the duration of the Games. Whilst beggars are seemingly allowed a free reign throughout the city, buskers, who also need to be licenced, are restricted to designated areas.

The exception for both is the Devonshire Street Tunnel where both guitar strummers and panhandlers are banned under Section 64 of the Public Transport Regulations of 2007, which “prohibits the soliciting of money (whether by way of busking or otherwise) from any person who is present on the bus, ferry or train or in the public area concerned”. Beg for money whilst whistling a tune in the Tunnel and you could well be tasered to toast!

It would be Orwellian to suggest that Sydney’s street beggars need a panhandler’s licence, although maybe that might be one way of weeding out the sharks. However their demise might be closer than we think. We are continually told that the cashless society is just around the corner and we have already seen it with innovations like the Opal Card. The days of the battered cardboard box full of dollar coins and the odd banknote might well be numbered. Then again, “Bob” from the start of this story is probably already organising an “EFTPOS ACCEPTED” sign for 2016.