Editorial

Published date01 June 1971
DOI10.1177/000486587100400201
Date01 June 1971
AUST. &N.Z. JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY (June, 1971): 4, 2
EDITORIAL
65
Vagrancy:
Insufficient
Lawful
Means
of
Support
IT
has
been reported!
that
the
State
Government
of Victoria will
introduce
legislation bringing
about
changes
in
the
law on vagrancy.
The
Minister
assisting
the
Attorney-General
(Mr.
Hunt)
is
stated
to
have
said:
"The
Government
accepted
the
criticism
that
mentally
deficient people
and
alcoholics were sometimes
dealt
with
under
this
law
and
imprisoned."
In
a
somewhat
emotive speech,
the
Leader of
the
opposttton
in
the
Legisla-
tive Council (Mr.
J.
Galbally, Q.C.) is
reported
to
have
commented>:
"Poverty
is condemned as a crime
and
the
offender
treated
as a
criminal"
and
"The
Victorian
Vagrancy
Act casts a
net
wide
enough
to
catch
even
the
founder
of
Christianity."
It
is difficult to
make
out
acase for a
sentence
of
imprisonment
to
be passed on a
man
who is
apparently
of insufficient lawful
means
of
support
as does
happen
(Vagrancy
Act,
1966, s.5)
and
a
man,
John
Allen»,
was
sentenced
in a
Bathurst
Court to two
months
hard
labor, he
having
pleaded guilty to
the
charge
and
having
stated
that
he
had
applied for
an
invalid pension on
the
basis of a
heart
complaint.
He died
in
hospital
11
days
after
being sentenced.
If
such
a law
has
little
to commend
it
with
the
European
population,
how
much
less reasonable
it
is in
practice
when
applied to
the
Aboriginal.
In
an
Editorial4it as
noted
that
"it
is grossly
absurd
that
such
a
charge
should
be
brought
against
an
Aboriginal on walkabout":
this
comment
made
in
relation
to
an
Aboriginal,
Dexter
Daniels,
who was
sentenced
to
14 days imprisonment.
In
Victoria two Aborigine brothers,
Stanley
and
Hugh
Coombes, aged 19
and
17 years, were gaoled for 12
months
for
having
no lawful
means
of
support,
the
Magistrate
saying:
"They
would
not
register
for Commonwealth
Unemployment
Benefits
and
could
not
live off
their
mother
all
their
life"5. On
appeal
the
sentences
were
quashed
and
the
brothers
placed on $20 good behaviour bond for
three
years
with
the
special
condition
that
they
should
report
to
and
carry
out
the
lawful directions
of
the
field officer of
the
Aborigines
Advancement
League.
In
another
case a21-year-old
male
European
with
no previous prison
record was
sentenced
to a
three
months'
gaol
sentence
as a
vagrant,
having
been
arrested
on his way
from
aCommonwealth Employment Office to see
aprospective employer",
The
revel
ant
section of
the
Vagrancy
Act,
1966,is section 5,
which
reads:
5(1) Where
any
member
of
the
police force
has
any
reasonable cause
to believe
that
any
person
has
no lawful
means
of
support
or
has
insufficient lawful
means
of support, he
may
arrest
such
person
either
1.
The
Age (Melbourne) 22
April
1971.
2.
The
Age (Melbourne) 17
March
1971.
3.
The
Herald
(Melbourne) 8
February
1966.
4.
The
Age (Melbourne) 8
December
1967.
5.
The
Herald
(Melbourne) 7
December
1967.
6.
The
Herald
(Melbourne)
6
August
1966.

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