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Speaker 1: Good afternoon. The government seems to have confirmed it is

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Speaker 1: working on measures to deal with rough sleepers in Auckland CBD. Yesterday,

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Speaker 1: Chris Hopkins of the Labor Party surprised the Prime Minister

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Speaker 1: by asking about it in Parliament's question time. The Prime

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Speaker 1: Minister denied that cabinet had made any decisions or had

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Speaker 1: discussions about it, but ministers have today admitted they are

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Speaker 1: actually working on measures. Paul Goldsmith is the Justice Minister.

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Speaker 2: High Paul, Hello, Hello, how are you?

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Speaker 1: I'm well? Thank you? I mean, let's get Are you

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Speaker 1: working on something or not?

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Speaker 2: Well? Yes. The issue, of course is blindingly obvious to

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Speaker 2: anybody who goes into Central Auckland is that we still

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Speaker 2: have a problem with general anti social behavior, and that's

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Speaker 2: a real concern to retailers, it's real concern to people

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Speaker 2: who'd live in the CBD, and also a concern for

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Speaker 2: people who want to come in and feel safe, which

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Speaker 2: is a basic expectation. We've got high hopes for Auckland.

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Speaker 2: Next year is going to be great year CRL. We

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Speaker 2: want the place to be humming and looking good, and

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Speaker 2: so there's a whole range of issues that we're dealing with,

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Speaker 2: and so on the housing front and homeless front. My

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Speaker 2: colleagues mister Bishop and mister Portucker are working very hard

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Speaker 2: in that area. I'm coming at it from the justice

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Speaker 2: point of view, and my focus is on anti social

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Speaker 2: behavior in particular. And there's been some many proposals put

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Speaker 2: forward by the Retail Advisory Group, some of them around

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Speaker 2: move on orders, and that's something we're considering. We haven't

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Speaker 2: made decisions yet, but that's something we're considering.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So you are considering move on orders. Are you

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Speaker 1: considering a homeless a rough sleeping ban in the city center?

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Speaker 2: Not directly that I'm aware of. What we're looking at

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Speaker 2: is that the question of being able to deal with

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Speaker 2: people who are it's behaviors that we're looking at, rather

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Speaker 2: than the particular people behaviors that are not appropriate and

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Speaker 2: giving the police extra powers to move people on.

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Speaker 1: So if you're not considering a ban, are they going

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Speaker 1: to be allowed to keep sleeping in the city center?

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Speaker 2: Well, well, that is something that we're still making decisions

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Speaker 2: on and we're working our way through.

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Speaker 1: So is a ban possible?

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Speaker 2: Well, I mean that the broad issues that we have

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Speaker 2: to feel about, I mean, yes, homelessness has been an issue.

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Speaker 1: So you time you are considering a ban.

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Speaker 2: Now, well, I'm focused on the anti social behaviors that are.

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Speaker 1: Somebody in your party considering a ban?

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Speaker 2: No, we would see you're trying to sort of get

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Speaker 2: me to talk about something that's out of my ministerial area.

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Speaker 1: Is going on here, I am.

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Speaker 2: It's very simple. It's very simple that.

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Speaker 1: I understand. I understand that you guys are considering a

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Speaker 1: range of things, and that's fair enough. The most interesting

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Speaker 1: of those things would be a ban on rough sleeping.

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Speaker 1: Is anyone of these ministers considering a ban on rough sleeping?

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Speaker 2: Not currently that I'm aware of what we're considering that.

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Speaker 1: So therefore, if you're not considering a band, then they

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Speaker 1: will be allowed to rough sleep in the city center,

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Speaker 1: won't they.

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Speaker 2: Well, it depends on what they're doing. And it's the

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Speaker 2: behaviors that we're focused on.

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Speaker 1: Oh, okay, so the good ones can rough sleep, but

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Speaker 1: they can't rough sleep if they're doing drugs and prostitution

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Speaker 1: and other weird stuff.

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Speaker 2: Well, and that there's a whole whole issue of blocking pavements,

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Speaker 2: intimidating people who come into stores.

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Speaker 1: Are you telling me they're going to be allowed to

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Speaker 1: They're going to be allowed to rough sleep in the

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Speaker 1: city center as long as they tuck themselves nicely away

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Speaker 1: and keep quiet.

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Speaker 2: I'm telling you, I'm telling you that that in terms

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Speaker 2: of what I'm focused on as Minister of Justice, it's

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Speaker 2: on dealing with anti social behavior. There are other ministers

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Speaker 2: looking at broader issues around homeless and on behalf of

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Speaker 2: all New Zealanders. We put enormous resources into trying to

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Speaker 2: deal with the broader homeless issue, but we still haven't

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Speaker 2: got to the end. So we stand here. We recognize

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Speaker 2: that the situation we have in the CBD at the

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Speaker 2: moment is not good enough, and it's not good enough

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Speaker 2: for the people who live there and work there and

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Speaker 2: want to come and shop there and feel sort of

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Speaker 2: that they're in a welcoming and you know, they feel safe,

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Speaker 2: and that's what we're focused on, and we're coming at

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Speaker 2: it from all the different angles. We haven't made any

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Speaker 2: final decisions on some of these extra years, although we've

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Speaker 2: already passed a lot of legislation around shoplifting and a

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Speaker 2: whole host of issues that we're dealing we've also put

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Speaker 2: the extra police on the beat. We're focused on that.

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Speaker 2: So we've done a lot but there's more to do,

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Speaker 2: and that there seems to be this big story that's

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Speaker 2: coming up around focusing on homelessness, and like I say,

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Speaker 2: we haven't made any decisions in that area at the moment,

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Speaker 2: but we're considering a whole range of things.

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Speaker 1: And when will you be doing whatever it is that

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Speaker 1: you're doing well, Well.

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Speaker 2: I can't give you an exact time on that. We

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Speaker 2: don't want to muck around because you said, we don't

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Speaker 2: want to muck around precisely, and we want to improve

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Speaker 2: the situation on the CBD. And I think most people

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Speaker 2: and who's listening in today who've been into the CBD

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Speaker 2: recently will say it's not good, miss stand.

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Speaker 1: We're all cheering you on, probably slightly disappointed that you're

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Speaker 1: going soft on this.

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Speaker 2: Tell me you do, We're not going soft at all.

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Speaker 2: We're just we're just we're just not trying to trying

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Speaker 2: to get us ahead of our decision making processes. We're

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Speaker 2: working away.

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Speaker 1: You're not even working on a band, Goldie.

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Speaker 2: Well, we're working on a lot of things that will

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Speaker 2: make a real difference. So I can't speak for other

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Speaker 2: colleagues in terms of the you know, the board range

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Speaker 2: around homelessness, and particular what I'm focusing on is anti

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Speaker 2: social behavior and that that's a huge area that we've

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Speaker 2: got to make progress on.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Paul, thank you, Paul Goldsmith, Justice Minister clear as Mud.

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Speaker 1: For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive listen live to

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Speaker 1: news talks.

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Speaker 2: It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast

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Speaker 2: on iHeartRadio.