Minister reveals Government could ban CBD begging and rough sleeping

Wednesday, 5 November 2025

Ministers and National Party MPs want to change the law to ban begging, or rough sleeping, in city centres - but it’s unclear how exactly any such ban will work.

Police Minister Mark Mitchell and Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith confirmed work was underway to empower police - or potentially other law enforcement agents - to move on rough sleepers and beggars.

Their confirmation came on Wednesday, after Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was asked about the proposal - and initially refused to provide an answer about the potential law change - in Parliament on Tuesday.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins appeared to catch Luxon off guard during Tuesday’s question time, when he asked: “Is the Government considering a law change to ban homeless people from central business districts; if so, why?”

He asked Luxon to confirm the Government was looking into that law change three times, but the prime minister refused to provide any details about it.

Instead, Luxon replied: “There have been no Cabinet decisions or discussion on that topic.”

But Mitchell let the cat out of the bag on Wednesday, which led to Goldsmith and Luxon confirming that work was underway on some sort of anti-begging and rough sleeping law.

He revealed Goldsmith was working with an advisory group and the Ministry of Justice to draft a bill that could give law enforcement agents power to ask homeless people to “move on” from city streets. A National Party backbencher, Ryan Hamilton, had proposed a similar law change as a private member’s bill - which isn’t Government policy.

But Mitchell said he and other National MPs supported the idea.

“It's really good bill. I supported it and we’ll have to see if it gets picked up as a Government bill,” he said.

He said homeless people in cities had been causing issues, including for police, stores and health agencies.

“At the moment, there are no powers to be able to move people on who come in and create social issues and intimidate people. They're at risk themselves,” Mitchell said.

Luxon told reporters that this policy could clean up Auckland’s CBD.

“We're talking to a range of people. And yes, move on orders would be one of the things that you'd want to be considering. But obviously, when you consider them, you've got to make sure that you've got the right support structures in place,” he said.

Hipkins said homelessness was an issue for social services, not police.

“Making it illegal to be homeless doesn't make someone not-homeless. Pushing them out of a CBD into a suburban area does not make them not-homeless,” he said.

This wasn’t a new idea from the National Party.

Goldsmith, the minister leading this policy work, advocated in 2008 for Auckland Council to have powers to stop people lying down and sleeping on the city streets.

At the time, he was on Auckland Council and said it was reasonable for people to be asked to move on - or face a sanction.

But Goldsmith told Stuff this idea had come from an advisory group, and wasn’t his own idea.

“2008? I don’t even remember 2008,” he said.

He said the idea had been floating around for some time.

“It’s certainly been raised by the retail advisory group, but not just by them. Also residents and retailers. A lot of people are concerned about the sad state of affairs in the CBD of Auckland. We can do better,” he said.

The advisory group consisted of dairy owners’ lobbyist Sunny Kaushal, Michael Hill jewellers manager Michael Bell, liquor store operator Ash Parmar, supermarket manager Lindsay Rowles and Retail NZ boss Carolyn Young.

Mitchell said social services such as the Māori Wardens and Auckland City Mission were also involved.