OPINION: Rev Murray Edridge, our Wellington City Missioner, on ‘Move-On Orders’ Legislation
You may have heard Murray, our City Missioner, speaking about the Government’s ‘Move On’ legislation on RNZ’s Morning Report on Friday.
The legislation received its first reading in Parliament on Thursday, and Murray echoed our thoughts when he voiced his deep concern about this policy’s potential impact on our communities.
Murray has written the piece below, following the legislation reaching Parliament last week.
“Thursday 21 May 2026 was a sad day for this nation.
“It was the day that those that we have elected to represent us and faithfully govern our country, introduced legislation that criminalised those of us that are just struggling to survive.
“This National-led coalition Government made election commitments to keep all of us safer by getting tough on Law and Order. They should be applauded for that, because safety and collective wellbeing are hallmarks of this place we call home.
“However, somewhere along the way, Government represented by Hon Paul Goldsmith either got confused about what they were trying to achieve, or diverted by the interests of a few.
“To quote from the explanatory notes for the proposed legislation:
‘The bill contributes to the Government’s commitment to restoring law and order to keep New Zealanders safe by ensuring that the Police has the necessary powers to maintain public order. The Government is concerned that people are congregating in city centres and engaging in behaviour that is disorderly, and in some cases, criminal.’
“So far that sounds ok – right? And most of the proposed legislation feels ok, and in our society’s best interests:
‘The legislation seeks to deal with behaviour that is disorderly, intimidating, threatening, disruptive, breaching the peace; and unreasonably obstructing, hindering or preventing someone from entering or leaving a lawful place of business or occupation.’
“It is hard to argue that this is not exactly the right thing to do.
“But here is where it goes wrong! Rather than limiting this legislation to harmful behaviour that disrupts community life or threatens public safety, it proposes the same criminal sanctions to people whose only “offence” is trying to survive. Government agencies themselves warned against this, appropriately describing rough sleeping and begging as “survival behaviours”.
“Why would anyone who truly believes in what New Zealand stands for want to criminalise behaviours that many people, through no real choice of their own, are reduced to? It seems remarkably like the old principle that we always believed in, that you never kick a person when they are down!
“The people who are rough sleeping and begging are not creating public disorder, being offensive, or breaking the law. What they should be is an embarrassment to the Government, and to all of us, that we as a community have not done enough to help them, in the circumstances they find themselves in.
“You would be right to question why we have more people than ever before sleeping rough and forced into begging. There are lots of contributory causes, but significant amongst them is Government funding decisions, punitive welfare system settings and the removal of safety nets such as emergency housing.
“So, it seems that under a veneer of law and order, the Government is also seeking to hide the evidence of the societal failures that have happened under their watch.
“If we allow our elected representatives to create laws that inappropriately penalise those that have done nothing wrong, we will all be complicit in losing the New Zealand that we all believed in!”