Submission to the Justice Select Committee
Summary Offences (Move-on Orders) Amendment Bill
Introduction
The Wellington City Mission has served communities across the greater Wellington region since it was established by St Peter’s Anglican Church in 1904. For 122 years, we have worked alongside people who are struggling; providing practical support, accommodation, care, and advocacy.
Our commitment is to support empowerment, transformation, and fullness of life for the whole community. Alongside the provision of services for people in the greatest need, we also speak for many whose voices are not heard by those making decisions that affect them. This submission is offered as an expression of that voice.
Wellington City Mission’s Position
The Wellington City Mission has a long history of constructive engagement with Government. Where possible, we seek to support Government initiatives and policy positions unless, in our view, they are clearly inappropriate for, or harmful to, the communities that we serve.
Since initial discussions about this Bill began in late 2025, and following the Minister’s public launch in February 2026, we have sought to engage with Government in an attempt to support the stated purpose of the Bill: strengthening the response to public disorder.
The Government has introduced this legislation as part of its platform to improve law and order and ensure that city centres remain public spaces that are accessible, safe, and enjoyable for everyone. The Bill responds to behaviours that can negatively impact on public enjoyment, inner-city residential neighbourhoods, and business operations.
Those behaviours include:
- behaving in a disorderly, intimidating, or threatening way;
- behaving in a disruptive manner;
- unreasonably obstructing, hindering, or preventing someone from entering or leaving a lawful place of business; and
- breaching the peace.
This is a legitimate and defensible ambition of the Government, and one the Wellington City Mission can support.
However the Government has chosen, against the advice and recommendations of all the Government agencies consulted in this process, to extend proposed Police Move-on powers to people who are merely demonstrating survival behaviours: sleeping rough or begging on the street.
In a civilised society, sleeping rough or begging cannot, by themselves, be treated as public disorder or as behaviours that are intimidating, offensive, or obstructive. These are not matters for Police intervention, but should be cause for our collective shame and embarrassment that as a society, we have not provided adequately for people who, largely for reasons beyond their own control, are reduced to these life choices.
For this reason, the Wellington City Mission cannot support the Bill in its current form. We encourage the Justice Select Committee to recommend that Parliament remove the application of Move-on Orders to people sleeping rough or begging on the streets.
For clarity, this means removing section 8A(1)(e) and (f).
Rationale for the Wellington City Mission’s Position
1. The Bill risks criminalising homelessness
The semantics of the application of Move-on powers can be debated, but by including rough sleeping and begging, the Bill does constitute a Government direction for Police to respond to people whose circumstances arise from homelessness and poverty. Whether intended or not, this risks criminalising homelessness and its consequences.
The causes of homelessness are varied and highly complex. There are no simple or quick solutions to what could be considered New Zealand’s most urgent and significant social issue. New Zealanders are entitled to expect from their elected representatives a response to this issue that is considered, well researched, and evidence based.
Applying Move-on Orders to people experiencing homelessness meets none of those criteria. It is also not what we believe the vast majority of New Zealanders would want for the most disadvantaged members of our community.
2. The Bill fails to distinguish circumstances from conduct
There must be a clear distinction between the circumstances of a person’s life, and behaviours that are unacceptable in a civilised society. The Bill, in its current form, does not make that distinction.
The proposed legislation also contains complexities and inconsistencies, including its application to people aged 14 years and older, and definitional challenges around rough sleeping and begging. These issues would become non-consequential if rough sleeping and begging were removed from the Bill.
3. Move-on Orders will be ineffective and harmful
As a long-standing and trusted community agency working every day with people impacted by homelessness, our advice is that the introduction of Move-on Orders in their current form will be ineffective, economically and socially expensive, and will cause real harm in our community.
4. International experience points in the opposite direction
It should be noted that on Monday 29 June 2026, the British Government repealed the Vagrancy Act. Introduced in 1824, the Act had been criticised for punishing people for being homeless. It pushed vulnerable people away from support, increased the risk of fines and criminal records, and made it harder for people to rebuild their lives.
The Vagrancy Act repeal forms part of a National Plan to End Homelessness, backed by £3.6 billion over three years, with the aim of halving long-term rough sleeping. It sits alongside a £39 billion investment over ten years in social and affordable housing.
The Rt Hon Steve Reed OBE MP, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, described the repeal in these terms:
“Homeless people are not criminals, they are people who need help. By repealing the outdated Vagrancy Act, we are shifting from punishment to prevention, alongside our investment to tackle homelessness for good.”
Commenting on the repeal, Chief Executive of the homelessness charity Crisis UK Matt Downie MBE, said:
“This is a watershed moment which marks the end of a deeply cruel policy of criminalising people because they are homeless.
For more than 200 years, the Vagrancy Act has punished people who have been forced to sleep on the streets. This has pushed people in already vulnerable situations away from support services and into the shadows for fear of being penalised.
We commend the UK Government for standing up for what’s right and getting rid of a great injustice. We hope this sends a powerful message about the kind of society we want: one where people experiencing homelessness are not persecuted but supported to rebuild their lives and fulfil their potential.”
In the context of this legislative response in the United Kingdom, which is grappling with the same issues (at greater scale) as New Zealand, why would the New Zealand Government seek to move in the opposite direction?
Surely the society we aspire to be, must embrace those who are struggling. Those of us with privilege must think carefully about the responsibility we hold towards those who do not share that privilege.
Reverend Murray Edridge
Wellington City Missioner / He Manu Taupua
Whakamaru – 4 Oxford Terrace, Mt Cook, Wellington 6021