The community in Adelaide’s inner-southern suburb of Parkside has rallied behind a seller of the Big Issue magazine, who a resident says was “literally kicked to the kerb” by a shopping centre.
Key points:
- A Big Issue vendor has been barred from selling at Unley Shopping Centre, according to a local resident
- A Big Issue spokeswoman said the shopping centre had a paid booking system for all traders
- The centre told the ABC nobody had sold the Big Issue there for a “number of years”
Gabrielle Hackett told ABC Radio Adelaide she was appalled to learn musician David Lee, who is vision-impaired, had been barred from selling the magazine inside the Unley Shopping Centre.
She posted in the Parkside Neighbourhood Facebook Group, where she heard from other community members who shared her sentiments.
“David has been selling the Big Issue for many years. He used to sell it inside and also outside the entrance of the Unley Shopping Centre until he was told that he could not sell the Big Issue on the property unless he paid rent for the space he used,” she wrote on Facebook.
“That’s right — someone has literally kicked David to the kerb.”
Ms Hackett said she had been buying the magazine from Mr Lee for the past three years and had learnt a lot about him in that time.
“After the completion of his degree, he was in and out of employment and then he heard about the Big Issue and thought he would take that on as a way to connect with his community and various communities around Adelaide, and also in order to make his own way in the world and not to depend on people for financial support,” she said.
“He found that it was a way for him to be independent and also to make connections with people around the place.”
Ms Hackett said she posted to Facebook in the hope she could get Mr Lee reinstated to the centre, so that the additional foot traffic would help him sell more issues of the magazine.
In a statement to ABC Radio Adelaide, Unley Shopping Centre managing director Con Angelopoulos said nobody had sold the Big Issue magazine at its premises for a “number of years”.
“We do understand that there was a vendor selling The Big Issue magazine in the immediate area however, at no time was any Big Issue seller asked to stop selling their magazine either at or near the Unley Shopping Centre,” Mr Angelopoulos said.
After being contacted by the ABC, Mr Angelopoulos said he had reached out to the Big Issue to discuss whether the organisation had an interest in attending the centre to sell its magazine.
Ms Hackett said she had found the centre’s response “very interesting”.
“I have bought the Big Issue from David in the Unley Shopping Centre as have a lot of other residents, inside absolutely, and outside,” she said.
“The Unley Shopping Centre have also responded to a post on Facebook about this issue and indicated that David was asked to leave the shopping centre because he didn’t follow the correct process to become a seller or to take up space in the centre.
“On checking the requirements on the Unley Shopping Centre website, what is required is to pay $150 plus GST, which entitles you do four visits per year, and in addition to that, someone who is requesting that floor space within the centre is required to have [a] public liability certificate, to the value of $20 million.
“If he was to maintain his practice of visiting there once a week across the year, it would cost him over $2,100 just for the floor space, which is a lot of money when you’re selling a $9 magazine just to make a living.”
A Big Issue spokeswoman said the organisation would not be paying to sell its magazine at the Unley Shopping Centre.
“The shopping centre has a paid booking system in place for all traders, which we have opted not to use currently,” she said in a statement.
“We welcome the opportunity to work more closely with the shopping centre in the future.”
Human Services Minister Nat Cook called into ABC Radio Adelaide saying the state government would be happy to support sellers of the Big Issue in getting floor space.
“People who are struggling to seek housing and struggling to make an income, the Big Issue is one of the ways they can actually feel a little bit better about what’s going on in their life and provide themselves with some disposable income,” she said.
“I would just ask people like the Unley Shopping Centre to consider that when they are looking at charging fees and making arbitrary decision and we are very happy to provide some support to the Big Issue sellers around Adelaide if there is any situations like this and just try to broker that.”
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