Why is begging illegal?

Waleed Aly posed this question on Channel Ten's The Project on Monday night, delivering a compelling editorial slamming cuts to federal funding for community services programs. These cuts, Aly argued, had led to more poverty-stricken Australians desperately seeking help in a country where - in many states, including Victoria - it is a crime to ask for it.

"It's argued that the money society gives to beggars would be better spent on homeless services but here is the problem: we are actually giving those people less money as a matter of government policy," the co-host said. "Joe Hockey's now infamous 2014 budget slashed $70 million from community services programs and that is despite experts telling us that almost 120,000 people had to be turned away from homelessness shelters last year," he said. "That's 329 every night being told they will have to find somewhere else to sleep. And of those desperate people, 36 per cent are escaping domestic violence."