UQ community law expert Associate Professor Tamara Walsh has recently commented on Queensland’s most disadvantaged people being charged for begging. The article in The Courier Mail, published on Saturday 5 June, stated that the State’s poorest people are being hit with fines they cannot pay because of legislation which outlaws begging.
A/Prof Walsh said, “The legislation has been in place for decades, anecdotally there has been an increase in people being charged with begging in a public place."
"Victoria had community-based courts to deal with the issue, although there has been fierce debate in that state over whether it should be an offence at all, while anti-begging laws are unconstitutional in the US.”
