#opinion: Move-On Powers Risk Criminalising Our Tamariki

By now, the Government’s proposed expansion of “move-on” powers has triggered alarm among communities, advocates and whānau across Aotearoa. But there’s one part of this policy that demands urgent, sober attention: the fact that it could be applied to rangatahi as young as 14 years old – children – who have literally nowhere stable to go.

This is not a minor detail. It is the moment at which a policy designed to “manage public spaces” crosses the line into the territory of punishment without purpose. It begs the question: where exactly does the Government expect a 14-year-old to be moved on to?

Let’s be clear: New Zealand is facing a homelessness crisis that is deepening, not easing. Tens of thousands of whānau lack secure housing. Many more are hidden – sleeping in cars, couch-surfing, crammed into overcrowded homes, or teetering on the edge because they can’t afford rent and living costs. Homelessness doesn’t just mean a person lying on a park bench. It includes our working poor, our rangatahi trying to finish school, and increasingly, our children.

So when ministers talk about “move-on orders”, they are not just talking about shifting adults away from city streets. Under this proposal, our children could be intercepted by police, issued with a direction to disperse, and then forced into compliance with the threat of fines or arrest. At 14.

Let’s think about that for a moment. A 14-year-old with no secure home. No stable caregiver to return to. No safe place to go. And then police decide they must “move on.” Where then? To a car parked out by the motorway? Behind a supermarket? Into the cold night?

And if they can’t obey because they have no home, who pays? Someone without income? Someone already marginalised? The next step is not soft support – it is arrest, and the entry of a child into a justice system that has been a mess for decades. A system that, far too often, fails our mokopuna, and too frequently leads to further harm, neglect and, ultimately, graduation into adult prisons.

Or is the idea that these young people will be handed over to Oranga Tamariki? A system already under immense strain, with monumental challenges in care quality, placement stability and cultural appropriateness? History tells us what too often happens then: children in State care face higher risks of psychological trauma, exploitation, isolation and disconnection from whānau and whenua. That is not a solution. That is damage.

We must remember that homelessness and social exclusion are not criminal behaviours. They are symptoms of systemic failure – failures in housing policy, in income support, in early intervention, in mental health and addiction services, and in the very way we see each other as a society.

A policy that pushes young people out with law enforcement will not give them a home. It will not give them support. It will not give them a future. It will only tell them they are unwanted in public, unwanted in policy discourse, and unwanted in the spaces where real support is meant to exist.

There are better ways to address disorder and support public safety – ways that are compassionate, evidence-based, and grounded in community wellbeing. Rental support, emergency housing, mental health outreach, harm-reduction programmes, youth-centred services and robust family support systems – these are the tools that actually build safer communities.

If this Government wants to prevent disorder, they must solve homelessness, not punish it. If they want to protect public spaces, they must protect the rights of children, not expose them to the machinery of justice. And if they want a legacy of strong, resilient communities, they must invest in solutions, not move kids around like obstacles to be managed.

Our rangatahi deserve better. Our children deserve better. And Aotearoa deserves a response that treats homelessness as a crisis to be resolved, not a crime to be swept away.

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