Melbourne's lord mayor has been heckled and sworn at as the council voted in tough new move-on laws for homeless people.
A group of homeless activists screamed at Robert Doyle, leaving him visibly rattled during the Tuesday night council meeting.
"It was pretty vile," Mr Doyle told 774 on Wednesday.
"(It was) a whole group of people who appeared to be either people who experienced homelessness or were homeless or another group of people who were there to support them."
Councillors agreed to pass amendments to the definition of camping, giving police more powers to remove rough sleepers.
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The council also said it would consider providing lockers and a drop-in centre for homeless people in the city centre.
The public will have 28 days to make submissions on the new law before a final decision is made.
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said the government had already scrapped move-on laws and were desperately scrambling after a rise in homeless camps.
"We had the laws to deal with them, the move-on laws, and the state government scrapped them," Mr Guy told reporters on Wednesday.
A group of crisis support agencies have warned the changes would not reduce the numbers of people sleeping rough and could mean they end up in more dangerous places.
"This will expose them to greater risk of assault, and will make it more difficult for homeless services to locate and engage people to support them into housing," the group said earlier this week.
The definition of camping has been broadened after being previously defined as being contacted to a car, tent, caravan or structure.
"Unless in accordance with a permit, a person must not camp in or on any public place," the amended law says.
The council also moved to ban people leaving any item in a public place without a permit, giving officers the power to confiscate the items.
