We strongly oppose the Summary Offences (Move-on Orders) Amendment Bill and urge the Select Committee to recommend that it not proceed because we believe it violates the rights to freedom of expression and movement.

The Bill grants "move on" powers, which enable Police to force people to leave a public space even when there hasn’t been any criminal activity, or risk a fine or imprisonment. The Bill specifies begging and rough sleeping as reasonable causes for enabling Police to issue move-on orders. This effectively criminalises poverty and erodes fundamental civil liberties protected under New Zealand law.

We believe most New Zealanders would agree that criminalising and imprisoning a person who has no home, and/or who may have mental health or addiction issues, but has not broken the law, is abhorrent. It does not solve the issue of homelessness and appears to be a deeply worrying, disproportionate use of State power.

We believe the Bill represents:

• unjustifiable limitations on the rights to freedom of movement and expression

• does not take into consideration the Crown’s obligations to honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi

• is not informed by the views of communities most likely to be impacted by the proposed law such as homeless whānau (including Māori and young people affected by homelessness), nor does it consider the views of NGOs and social services who know and support whānau affected by homelessness.