The Auckland Coalition for the Safety of Women and Children - established in 2006 and including the NCWNZ Auckland branch among its members - has been lobbying for many years to amend the Crimes Act legislation. The Coalition has been consulted several times by Ministry staff and MPs have visited them in person. A draft bill, written in most part by Coalition members Alison Towns and Carrie Leonetti, Associate Professor of Law. Many drafts were reviewed by members of the Coalition as well as several NCWNZ Action Hub convenors, before it was submitted to various Ministries prior to this particular bill's development.

With the release of the proposed Crimes Legislation (Stalking and Harassment) Amendment Bill at the end of 2024 and Parliament's Justice Select Committee now receiving submissions on the same, we are hopeful that real progress will be made this year. In its current state, however, the Bill contains a number of flaws that have the potential to make arrests and prosecution for stalking even more difficult than is the case with existing legislation.

There are several elements in the current version of the Bill that were added late in its development and to which - if the Coalition members had known of these additions during meetings with MPs - would have been described as problems.

Download the submission by the Coalition for the Safety of Women and Children here (.pdf file). The major changes that the Coalition urges the Ministry to make before presenting it to Parliament are to remove the following:

• the phrase that the offender behaves in such a way "knowing that it is likely to cause fear or distress"
• that the actions of the stalker take place "on at least 3 separate occasions within a period of 12 months" 

If these items are not removed, fewer people would be prosecuted than there are today. These seemingly minor additions to the draft Bill have increased the burden of proof on the victim. Even a common assault charge does not require the victim to evidence their fear or distress.

The Coalition's submission advocates for the adoption of a “knows or ought to know” standard, ensuring accountability for reckless and deliberate behaviours. The criminal harassment section of the Harassment Act (which this Bill repeals) states that a person is guilty of harassment if they “know or ought to know” that their actions are harassing. This approach is aligned with the legal principle of constructive knowledge, which holds individuals responsible for the reasonably foreseeable consequences of their actions. The phrase “knows or ought to know” is used in other legal jurisdictions including England and Wales, and Victoria, Australia, in addition to our current Harassment Act.  The Coalition's submission has several clear and interesting points to make on the current drafting of the Bill and how it might be improved to address real experiences the Coalition members encounter every day.

NCWNZ has also presented a submission on the Bill - you can download that document (.pdf file) here. In spite of the short timeframe for collecting responses, and an Action Item being circulated during the summer break, NCWNZ members - individuals, organisations, and branches - were generous in providing input to this important Bill. The lived experience of victims of stalking and the voices of NCWNZ's diverse membership give real strength to the submission. The NCWNZ submission refers readers to existing laws in Australia and Canada which currently work to protect women and children from stalking. The NCWNZ emphasised also that the Bill as currently written "is not sufficiently victim-focussed." A convincing argument against the 3-strikes count was to show that this was out of step with NZ's current Harassment Act 1997 that specifies the pattern of offending as "doing any specified act to the other person on at least 2 separate occasions within a period of 12 months.”

Both submissions are carefully written and based in real experiences by women and children in New Zealand. Both organisations wish to see the rehabilitation of offenders included in the consequential amendments to the Sentencing Act 2002. These submissions are a powerful example of how transparency in a democratic government and networked voices of women activists works.

This article was written with the help of Leonie Morris (Project Lead, Aotearoa Free from Stalking), Alison Towns (Coalition for the Safety of Women and Children), and Bernice Williams (NCWNZ).

To read more articles from The Circular (January-February 2025) issue 650, click on the tag below.