Stalking law changes lower threshold for jail time

4:55 pm on 10 June 2025

russell.palmer@rnz.co.nz

Paul Goldsmith says stalkers have been able to evade real consequences for their actions for far too long.Photo:Laurence Smith / STUFF NZ LTD

The government will strengthen its proposed law to criminalise stalking, including broadening the criteria to a longer timeframe.

The Crime Legislation (Stalking and Harassment) Amendment Bill would have sent stalkers to jail for five years if they committed three such acts within a year, that threshold now being lowered to two acts over two years.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said the government had accepted the change as one of several recommended unanimously by the Select Committee in response to 608 written and 62 oral submissions.

Changes to the bill include:

Making the threshold two stalking or harassment acts within 24 months, rather than three acts within 12 months
Expanding the definition of an act of stalking or harassment to include 'doxing' - the publishing of material about the person being stalked
Making it so courts can order any intimate visual recordings of the person being stalked to be destroyed within 10 working days
Making it so people convicted of stalking or harassment can be subject to Firearms Prohibition Orders
Clarifying the language around the way a new aggravating factor in sentencing for other crimes can be applied
Making it clear that offenders who are discharged without conviction can still have restraining orders applied to them

Victims had warned the previous approach - limited to three offences over 12 months -would "do more harm than good" and protect stalkers rather than victims - in part because the existing criminal harassment offence, which would be abolished under the changes, only requires two acts.

Goldsmith said the change would strengthen the law.

"This change better recognises patterns in stalking behaviour and time that can pass between incidents. For example, stalking that occurs around anniversaries would not be covered under the original 12-month period," he said.

"We've said from day one victims are our priority... stalkers have been able to evade real consequences for their actions for far too long."

The Select Committee report also proposed a definition of doxing as "publishing any statement or other material relating or purporting to relate to a person, or purporting to originate from a person", but the alleged offender would also need to know their behaviour was likely to cause fear or distress to the victim.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says the changes would strengthen the law.Photo:RNZ / Marika Khabazi

The law would also provide exemptions for those who could prove the behaviour was for a lawful purpose, or done with a reasonable excuse, or in the public interest.

The government parties National, ACT and New Zealand First agreed to the changes, although ACT argued there was a "need to strike a balance between ensuring a sufficient pattern of behaviour is established to protect victims while not unintentionally creating offenders and burdening the courts".

The party suggested police should make use of the powers to provide a written notice warning potential offenders that their behaviour could amount to stalking "to the fullest extent possible".

The opposition parties Labour, the Greens and te Pāti Māori also supported the changes recommended by the committee, but said they believed further amendments would be needed in future.

These included changes to limit the police use of written notices to avoid retaliation against the victims, and expanding the requirement for the alleged offender to have received police notification to instead only require that they "ought to know" their behaviour was likely to cause fear or distress.

They also proposed someone charged with stalking should face an automatic suspension of any firearms licence, and called for stalking-specific rehabilitation programmes.

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