Police Offences Amendment (Begging Repeal) Bill 2024 (No 16)

Tuesday 6 August 2024

[4.41 p.m.]

Ms ARMITAGE (Launceston) - Mr President, I thank the member for bringing this bill forward. We discussed this very matter in relation to the Police Offences Amendment (Repeal the Begging) Bill 2019. I cast my mind back to the remarks I made at that time and find that many of them are still relevant. I do not want to repeat ad nauseam what I and others have already said about the bill and the policies that underpin it.

I put on the record that there should be no law which criminalises poverty. No one begs because they want to. It is an action of last resort. By retaining the offence of begging in the Police Offences Act it is essentially a social problem that is criminalised. During the debate on the previous repeal of begging bill, we received advice from TasCOSS which stated that the offence of begging is antiquated and disproportionately punishes those who are poor. This is still the case and there is still the need to change it.

I believe there is general willingness in the community to ensure that disadvantaged people are not unreasonably targeted by laws like this, which have the effect of disadvantaging them further. There has been enough sentiment in the community to pay attention to concerns surrounding begging that incorporates antisocial behaviour, such as that which is aggressive, antisocial, offensive, abusive, or so on. It is not unreasonable to address these concerns and eliminate, as best we can, ambiguity around what powers police have to move on people who are engaging in these behaviours. It is not, to my mind, a punitive measure, but one which is in place to protect everybody. Where people have the freedom to beg, others also have the freedom to go about their business and enter and exit places of business or public facilities free from interference.

I look forward to the contributions of other members on this bill. I believe this is an important discussion to have and an important policy to legislate in principle. I believe we can achieve both decriminalising begging whilst also ensuring that the community and the wider public retain their freedom to go about their business free from interference.