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Gary Morgan 2004 Lord Mayor Candidate Margaret Wood 2004 Deputy Lord Mayor Candidate

Andrew Jaspan

Editor-in-Chief

The Age

Melbourne

Monday, December 13, 2004

Dear Sir,

During the recent Lord Mayor election period, telephone polling conducted for the Melbourne Civic Group asked Melbourne electors “what particular issues would you like [the Melbourne City Council] to address in their next term of office?” Many mentioned security on the streets and beggars as issues they were concerned about and would like to see addressed. These are issues all Melbournians are concerned about. They are real issues. (See the press release by the Melbourne Civic Group in response to this issue November 17).

James Norman’s article in the Saturday Age ( Top cities don’t pretend everything is perfect — Beggars on Melbourne streets present us with moral dilemmas we should not avoid) was critical of Herald Sun reporter Liam Houlihan’s informative December 8 Special Report “Beggars in our city” and finished with a ‘slight at me’.

Unfortunately the article would have given your readers the wrong impression on where I stand on this important Melbourne issue of looking after the disadvantaged — the media seems to have conveniently forgotten that if I had been elected Lord Mayor I would have donated my allowance (about $500,000 over 4 years) to Melbourne Charities and cut out inappropriate personal Lord Mayor expenses.

A clear distinction can be made between people who are begging through real need (these people should be helped as I said throughout the Mayoral election period) and those who have found begging to be a lucrative occupation. The latter are generally more aggressive and threatening as they have perfected ways of convincing people to give them money, and often move in pairs or groups — even more intimidating to the ordinary Melbournian or tourist.

On Friday evening with a group of friends enjoying after work drinks we were confronted with requests for money three times within an hour. The “beggars” were all good actors, appropriately poorly dressed, with similar hard luck stories — one got particularly upset when I confronted him with the fact I had rejected his request a few days earlier and what he was doing was illegal.

In the previous week a poorly dressed stooping middle aged woman approached me for money on the corner of Collins and Russell Streets as I was walking to the “top” end — I ignored her request. As I waited at the lights former Melbourne Lord Mayor Ivan Deveson was approached by the same woman — he ignored her request. About an hour later, returning down Collins Street after Exhibition Street I saw the same woman — no longer stooped, briskly walking with a male companion and chatting in a jovial manor — she had obviously had a good day conning “gullible” Melbournians!

What should be of a real worry to Melbourne City Council electors is the number of Melbourne issues now being discussed each day by the Melbourne media which were mainly ignored during the lead up to the Council election.

The only criticism of the Herald Sun should have been that they did not publish their Special Report well before the election for Lord Mayor. Unfortunately during his first term, Lord Mayor John So did little, if anything, about the "Beggar" problem. He now has the opportunity to do something over the next 4 years, if not the number of visitors to Melbourne will decline significantly.

Yours sincerely,

Gary Morgan

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