It's taken a while but we got there at last.

Move-on orders.

Clear lines of responsibility and delineation for police to actually fix a problem that has existed for too long in our central city areas.

As the debate bounces back and forward this week have a look at those who ask "where do they go?"

They ask that because it’s the easy question to ask. It’s the point-scoring question to ask.

It’s the question you ask when you don’t actually have to deal with the problem.

The previous Government, who will be one of the people asking that very question, stuck them in motels and ruined entire towns like Rotorua.

They stuck them in social housing and ruined entire neighbourhoods, as the agency responsible evicted exactly zero people despite antisocial, and often criminal, behaviour.

In other words they gave greater priority to troubled menaces than they did to wider society that simply wanted to get on with life.

Downtowns, whether Wellington, Christchurch or Auckland, need help and have needed help for years.

We were at lunch a couple of weeks ago in the central city for a birthday. The drugged-out woman screaming her head off on the bench outside was doing her best to ruin everyone's Saturday.

The music in the restaurant had to be turned up to a level that you could no longer hear each other talk. But what was the proprietor supposed to do?

What is any business supposed to do when you have to step over the down and out, the drugged out and the violent, simply to unlock your door?

The apologists paint these people as harmless. They are not.

They paint them as lost and wayward. They are not.

They are law breakers who cause a disproportionate amount of trouble to people who don't deserve it.

As a result of an apologist mentality no one has known what to do, like retail crime and Yaris' through windows a few years back.

Toughen up the laws and you'll be amazed how quickly the problem gets solved.

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Mike's Minute: It's about time we had move-on orders

The Mike Hosking Breakfast