Bob Jones defends criticism of beggars
Wellington businessman Sir Bob Jones says beggars are a ‘‘disgrace to the human race’’, but his comments have been slammed as ‘‘deeply offensive and outrageous’’.
Speaking to The Dominion Post last night, he said it was easy for people to say he was criticising them from a position of wealth but he warned they would be missing the point.
‘‘There were no beggars on the street 20 years ago, maybe even 10 years ago if my memory serves me correctly. I don’t know what happened with the western world,’’ he said.
‘‘Are we in India where the buggers are doing it out of sheer necessity, or parts of Africa? No, we’re not.
‘‘We have a massive private sector in New Zealand, whether it’s the churches, the Salvation Army, the City Mission, this sort of thing, and all backed up by the state. Nobody needs to beg, that is a cold hard fact.
‘‘It’s time we resurrected the old laws and made it illegal.
Jones was responding to a story published by Stuff on Monday about West Auckland beggar Conrad, who claimed he was making up to $150 a day from begging at a Henderson mall. He also said that he was not homeless, and used the money for drugs.
‘‘We are a welfare society, if anyone is down and out society looks after them, these people are degrading themselves,’’ Jones said. ‘‘If they want to degrade themselves it’s none of my business but don’t do it in public.’’
Alistair Russell, spokesman and advocacy co-ordinator for Auckland Action Against Poverty said: ‘‘Mr Jones’ comments are both deeply offensive and outrageous, the problem of homelessness is a problem of poverty.
‘‘Poverty is the outcome of the wealth that people like Mr Jones have actually accumulated. It is the wealthy that are responsible for poverty in this country because of their privilege and their ongoing accumulation of wealth at the expense of the poor.’’
However, Jones said he had ‘‘reached an age where you don’t have to be too sensitive about telling the truth about things’’.
‘‘If you’d asked me 20 years ago, I might have been a little bit more polite about these things . . .
‘‘We [my businesses] give away an awful lot, we give it away to the needy, but we give it away for educational things, so it’s getting on to $1 million a year but we keep quiet about it.
‘‘Some people know about our refugee daughters’ scholarships at universities, and that’s about $100,000 a year. So I’m only too happy to help people who deserve to be helped.’’