Stalking officially became a criminal offence in New Zealand from midnight, with offenders now facing up to five years in prison under new legislation.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said the new law sends a strong signal that stalking and harassment will no longer be tolerated, describing the behaviour as “vicious, sinister and potentially deadly.”
The new offence, introduced under the Crimes Legislation (Stalking and Harassment) Amendment Act, targets patterns of behaviour that offenders know are likely to cause victims fear or distress. A pattern of behaviour is defined as two specified acts occurring within a two-year period.
Goldsmith said stalking has long caused serious emotional, psychological and financial harm, particularly to women, while offenders often escaped significant legal consequences under existing laws.
The legislation outlines a broad range of behaviours that may constitute stalking, including following or watching someone, unwanted communication, tracking or recording a person, interfering with property or pets, damaging reputations, and publishing private personal information online in acts commonly known as “doxing.”
The law also covers behaviour intended to intimidate or distress a person, including conduct involving children being used to pass on threats or monitor victims.
Goldsmith said the Government’s wider law-and-order reforms were aimed at ensuring stronger consequences for offenders and better protections for victims. He pointed to recent sentencing reforms limiting judicial sentence discounts and changes allowing sexual violence victims greater control over permanent name suppression decisions.
Goldsmith also acknowledged more than 600 public submissions made during the Justice Committee process, with many submitters sharing personal experiences of stalking and harassment.
Police notice provisions and legal defences are also included within the legislation.
Image credit: Viresh Studio
Hurray, no more private investigators!
Did you catch that, Able Security?
https://security.org.nz/public-info/find-a-member/
Is postimg truthful information about what someone has done unlawful?
Just to make clear: A private citizens initiating a conversation with a bullsh*tician, strolling on the beach or walking its bitch, is not stalking.
It is called direct democracy.
So big brother surveillance government is going to arrest itself then????
We have one of those in our town who drinks sits on the corner of the street pacing up and down staring aggressively at everyone doing the bird and running into the middle of the road threatening to throw cans at your car just an absolute meanes I’m surprised he’s got away with it for so long 🤔
No more cameras taking photos at intersections?
No more allowing mobile phone tracking? Sure
But stalking by the government is ok? Stalking by their intelligence agencies is ok? How would the police and the SIS and GCSB actually work without stalking people?
How does one prove ‘stalking’ when coincidental meetings are just that?
This is just another modus for Karens and their sub-types to go after men they don’t like…
Besides, we have high school girls with their new invention that calls for help when given undue attention in public.
That invention should sell very well in Europe & the U.K..
https://www.facebook.com/rnznewzealand/posts/four-students-own-experiences-with-unwanted-attention-has-lead-them-to-develop-f/1465109492321661/
You have no idea mate. Its not just women who get stalked and much of it isn’t necessarily sexually motivated. As for proving it, patterns of repeated distressing behavior by the creepy stalker.
As someone who has been on the receiving end of unwanted communication this is very welcome news. Now we need tougher laws on the use of security camera’s in domestic settings like Australia.
So courting a woman can now be weponized by psycho-bitches?
Another nail in the coffin of procreation.
Hey Mr Goldsmith, why do you say women are particularly vulnerable? Are men somehow not? A man’s reputation is destroyed upon allegation alone.
Agree, but a real good man does not care about reputation. He knows who he is. A real man can stand his ground. And that’s why so many ‘women’ complain about not being able to find a good man. A real man knows a slut when he sees one. Why is prostitution the oldest trade? Because men trade a metoo slut gold g any day for a clear temporary deal.
So, the battle real good men face is the politicized shackles, the systemic abuse, the family court mafia and the MeToo sluts weaponizing ‘justice’ constructs, throwing other real good women under the bus, for the sake of personal gold-digger psychopathy.
But here is the point: real good independent men can walk away from a slut. They recover, usually atfer initial horror.
However, real good men, if they are fathers, can’t, because they are stalked by the mothers of their children, assisted and abaited [sic intended] by a system that lives of these fathers, namely the tax-paid family court system, operating in total secret (privacy laws), sacrificing good men under decades-old misguidance of feminist propaganda, socialist family-destroying agenda, and of course by OT outcasts that have been abused themselves.
https://assets.menz.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/OIA-response-for-A-Kern.pdf
This is good news. Hopefully covered by this law is the practise of impersonating a trusted professional such as a counsellor, doctor or police officer.