This bill amends the Summary Offences Act 1981 to empower the New Zealand Police to issue move-on orders to manage low-level disorderly behaviour and prevent escalation. The amendments aim to ensure that the Police are adequately equipped to address public disorder, increase the public’s sense of safety, and support urban centres and economies.
This bill has been accorded urgency in the House. First detected 15 September 2026, 4:25am UTC.
Urgency compresses the timetable, not the politics. Until the third reading, the committee of the whole House can still amend the bill — changes are moved right up to the final vote. The channels that operate at this speed:
Members who took a call in this bill’s debates, from our Hansard corpus. Under urgency several bills are often debated together (a “cognate” debate), so speakers may be addressing the group of bills.
Topics in the OpenBrief corpus matched to this bill’s title, with their volume over the last six weeks — how loud the subject already was when urgency was moved. This is retrieval against our existing corpus, not model judgement.
| Topic | Press items · 6wk | Social posts · 6wk |
|---|---|---|
| move on orders | 3 | 2 |
AI-assisted analysis · every claim links to primary source ·
corrections
Published 16 Sep 2026, 7:20pm UTC (separate from, and later than, the alert timestamp above)
· model: claude-opus-4-8
In short: A constable may issue a move-on order requiring a person to leave a public place, or stay away, for up to 24 hours where the constable reasonably suspects specified conduct.
“A constable may issue a move-on order to a person if the constable has reasonable grounds to suspect that the person is engaging in, or has recently engaged in, any of the following conduct in a public place”
“(e) unreasonable begging: (f) rough sleeping or setting up personal possessions, makeshift shelters, or other structures indicating an intent to inhabit the public place.”
“A constable may issue a move-on order to a person who is aged 14 18 years or older.”
“A constable who is proposing to issue a move-on order to a person may detain the person for the period that is reasonably necessary to do 1 or more of the following”
“A person who commits an offence under against this section is liable to a fine not exceeding $500.”
“A person who commits an offence against this section is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months or a fine not exceeding $2,000 $1,000.”
“does not commit an offence against this section if the person returns to the public place, while the order is in force, for any purpose other than to engage in conduct described in section 8A(1)”
“A move-on order may not be issued to a person who is in a public place for the primary purpose of demonstrating support for, or opposition to, or otherwise publicising, a point of view, cause, or campaign.”
“The Commissioner must include in every annual report prepared for the purposes of section 43 of the Public Finance Act 1989, for the period covered by the report”
Taken under urgency; the compressed timetable limited scrutiny even where a committee stage existed.
Method: the model reads the bill as published (claude-opus-4-8); every claim above carries a verbatim span of that text, checked mechanically — claims that fail the check are dropped, not softened. Text analysed from an archived copy of the official text. Full methodology →
A motion to accord urgency to the following business was agreed to: - the remaining stages of the: - India Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill; - Local Government (System Improvements) Amendment Bill; - Oranga Tamariki (Responding to Serious Youth Offending) Amendment Bill; and - Summary Offences (Move-on Orders) Amendment Bill - the first reading, and referral to select committee of the: - References to Tiriti o Waitangi/Treaty of Waitangi (Repeals) Amendment Bill; - References to Tiriti o Waitangi/Treaty of Waitangi (Strength of Legislative Obligations) Amendment Bill; and - References to Tiriti o Waitangi/Treaty of Waitangi (Standardisation) Amendment Bill - the second reading and committee stage of the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Amendment Bill; - the remaining stages of the Public Works Amendment Bill; - the committee stage of the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) (3 Day Postnatal Stay) Amendment Bill; - the remaining stages of the: - Building (Earthquake-prone Buildings) Amendment Bill; - Policing Amendment Bill; - Corrections (Management of Prisoners, and Prisoners’ Property) Amendment Bill; - Immigration (Enhanced Risk Management) Amendment Bill; - Land Transport (Revenue) Amendment Bill; - Financial Markets Conduct Amendment Bill; and - Commerce (Promoting Competition and Other Matters) Amendment Bill.
