New powers are needed to ban students from gathering in large numbers in the streets of North Dunedin, National list MP Michael Woodhouse believes.
His call comes after he spent much of Saturday night on Castle St, watching in "anger and frustration" as a gathering of about 600 people - mainly students from Dunedin and Christchurch - turned violent for a second consecutive night.
Mr Woodhouse said a bylaw placing restrictions on the ability of students to congregate in large numbers should be considered among new measures to prevent similar chaotic scenes.
He planned to discuss the proposal when he met civic leaders and representatives from emergency services and the University of Otago in the coming days and weeks, but had little sympathy for those who claimed the move would be draconian.
"If they feel [annoyed] about that, too bad. I won't lose any sleep over it.
"We have, for worse, got to a point where the tradition is that [this] is the only way the night will end. The softly-softly, low-key approach just isn't going to work," he said.
Even those students who gathered in Castle St but did not throw missiles had "provided the audience for the nutters", he said.
"If the audience wasn't there, the behaviour would not occur."
However, Dunedin North Labour MP Pete Hodgson said a bylaw would make no difference as police had powers under the temporary North Dunedin liquor ban to arrest students drinking in the streets.
"Having a congregation bylaw would simply mean you were arresting them on two counts, not one," Mr Hodgson saidInstead, he encouraged the universities of Otago and Canterbury to exclude students involved in the Undie 500 disorder where they were found to have broken the law.
A firm line had already been taken by Otago following this year's toga party street disorder, and "I would encourage them to continue with that firm line", he said.
He did not support calls for an organised event to give students something to do during the weekend of the event, saying it was unlikely to solve the problem of street disorder.
"You can have riots later in the night, after the concert finishes."
