Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller
The Wellington region's mayors, as well as iwi, church and social support agency leaders, say the government's proposed move-on orders are not welcome in the region.
An open letter decrying the introduction of powers to enable police to relocate people from certain areas - under threat of fines or imprisonment - has been sent to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
But Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said the letter was "overly simplistic" and its signatories were "ignoring the facts".
The letter - signed by 21 Wellington leaders - described the initiative as a "superficial and unhelpful" approach.
"Whilst we accept and understand that anti-social behaviour on the part of some must be able to be responded to, we don't consider that moving a person to some other unspecified place fixes the problem, nor does anything to address the issues that individual is dealing with, and in fact, potentially causes significant harm," the signatories wrote.
Breaching a move-on order - which would
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