Legislation that will make stalking illegal will be introduced to parliament before the end of the year. Here’s everything you need to know. 

Hang on – is stalking currently legal? 

It’s complicated. A lot of the behaviours that constitute stalking, like sending abusive messages and threatening violence, are already offences under legislation like the Harassment Act and Harmful Digital Communications Act, but others, like monitoring the victim’s whereabouts, phoning late at night or sending unwanted gifts, are not illegal. 

That’s a problem. Police say they “find it challenging to respond to some stalking behaviours because they are lawful”, according to a 2022 Ministry of Justice briefing to the then minister of justice, Kiri Allan. “Also, the current definition of harassment does not capture surveillance and monitoring.”

I’m realising now that I’m not 100% sure what stalking even is. Can you enlighten me please? 

Sure. The definition favoured by victim advocates is that stalking is repetitive, persistent and unwanted intrusions into a person’s life. It involves a pattern of behaviour on the part of the stalker rather than a single event. 

That behaviour may include the following: 

• Surveillance of the victim (online and offline, eg aerial surveillance, obsessive tracking of social media posts).
• Following the victim (using digital means such as tracking devices and GPS, or non-digital means, eg following them down the street).
• Threatening death and violence (including sexual violence) explicitly or implicitly, against the victim and/or those close to them, including family members and pets.
• Repeated phoning, sometimes late at night.
• Sending repeated messages (via text, email, social media, notes, letters or more unconventional means, such as internet banking deposit reference fields).
• Leaving unwanted items, eg flowers, expensive gifts, faeces, dead animals.
• Obstructing the victim from seeing other people and/or obstructing others from seeing the victim
• Loitering or standing near known or expected routes. 
• Interfering with property, eg entering a victim’s home or vehicle.
• Disturbing the victim’s sleep, peace and/or privacy. 
• Spreading untruthful and/or damaging narratives (online or offline). 
• Doxing. 
• Vexatious litigation.
• Making false allegations to state agencies. 
• Other forms of cyberbullying, eg releasing revenge porn. 

Stalking can occur by proxy, for example when the perpetrator targets the victim’s children or friends, and the stalker may recruit others to carry out the behaviours above. 

According to justice minister Paul Goldsmith, the new law will “provide a list of behaviours that may amount to stalking and harassment, including damaging reputation, recording, or tracking and following or loitering as well as the use of technology in modern stalking methods”.

Reflecting that stalking is not a single event, the new law will “capture patterns of behaviour, being three specified acts occurring within a 12-month period”, Goldsmith said in a statement. 

OK, sounds scary. Is this happening a lot? 

The short answer is yes. Given New Zealand has not, until now, criminalised stalking specifically, it’s hard to know for sure the number of victims, but in Australia one in five women and one in 15 men experience stalking in their lifetime, and our statistics are likely to be similar. The 2021 NZ Crime and Victims Survey (NZCVS) found that harassment and threats (crimes consistent with stalking) are two of the five most common crime experiences, and nearly two thirds of Women’s Refuge’s clients are stalked, according to the National Collective of Independent Women’s Refuges. While the rate of harassment and threats decreased in the 2023 NZCVS,

What else do we know about the victims of stalking?

As above, most victims are women, and young women, disabled women, rainbow women and wāhine Māori are most impacted, according to Leonie Morris, project lead for Aotearoa Free From Stalking.

What’s the impetus for changing the law now? 

Victim advocates have been calling for a specific stalking offence in New Zealand for years, but momentum built after the murder of 21-year-old Aucklander Farzana Yaqubi, who was killed by her stalker in December 2022 after she reported his harassment to police. An IPCA investigation into the police response found it to be inadequate. 

Ahead of the 2023 election, Labour, National, the Greens and The Opportunities Party all expressed support for strengthening legal protections against stalking. More than 7,000 citizens signed a petition calling for a specific stalking offence, which was presented to Goldsmith in June this year. He responded by committing to introduce a bill that would make stalking illegal by the end of the year. This is the follow through. 

Is it unusual to specifically criminalise stalking?

No. Stalking is already criminalised in the US, Australia, England, Wales and the European Union.

What’s the penalty going to be? 

A maximum of five years’ imprisonment. By way of comparison, the maximum penalty under both the Harassment Act and Harmful Digital Communications Act is two years’ imprisonment.

I see. And are there any other legal changes on the cards?

There are. Four other stalking-related amendments would (1) allow courts to make restraining orders and harmful digital communications orders at sentencing, for those convicted of a stalking offence; (2) introduce two new stalking-related aggravating factors, extending sentences for stalkers convicted of other crimes; (3) clarify the definition of psychological violence in the Family Violence Act to specifically include stalking, and (4) disqualify those convicted of stalking from holding a firearms licence.

Righto. How are people responding to the news? 

The Coalition for the Safety of Women and Children has welcomed the bill, calling it “a message that stalking is unacceptable, that it’s not OK to digitally track your ex or go to your partner’s work if she doesn’t want you there or hang around outside her university lectures if she’s asked you not to.” 

However, the organisation criticised the requirement for three specified acts within a 12-month period. “Our current Harassment Act is triggered after the second incidence and this is widely accepted,” said campaign spokesperson Leonie Morris. “The 12-month period is also concerning – some stalking can be severe but happen every 18 months, for example.”

This criticism was echoed by victim advocate Ruth Money, who told 1News two incidents would be sufficient. Both Money and the Coalition for the Safety of Women and Children have warned that the new law should not require victims to detail the harm they have experienced to secure a conviction, arguing that the behaviour of the perpetrator should be assessed according to the likely impact on a reasonable person.