New Zealand passes Counter-Terrorism Legislation Bill
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New Zealand’s Counter-Terrorism Legislation Bill has passed its third reading at Parliament, providing law enforcement agencies greater powers to protect New Zealanders from terrorist activity.
Minister of Justice Kris Faafoi, who welcomed the Bill, stated that it will help strengthen laws while closing the gaps within the country’s counter-terrorism legislation.
“The new counter-terrorism law’s major change is to add the criminal offence of planning or preparation for a terrorist act,” Minister Faafoi said.
“The Justice Select Committee also fully endorsed a recommended change to the definition of a terrorist act to include the intention to intimidate, rather than to induce terror, as is defined in the current law.”
The Counter-Terrorism Legislation Bill amends New Zealand’s Terrorism Suppression Act 2002 and the Search and Surveillance Act 2012 with the following changes:
- criminalise planning or preparation for a terrorist act (and apply warrantless powers of entry, search, and surveillance to that offence)
- update the definition of a terrorist act to improve clarity
- more clearly criminalise weapons training or combat training for terrorist purposes;
- criminalise travel to, from, or via New Zealand with the intention to carry out an offence under the Terrorism Suppression Act
- extend the terrorism finance offences to also criminalise providing wider forms of support to terrorist individuals or groups, such as goods and services
The current changes made to New Zealand’s counter-terrorism law brings its definition of a terrorist act in line with counter-terrorism laws in other countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom.
The new Counter-Terrorism Legislation Bill also provides the Government and law enforcement agencies with the needed tools to act early to prevent, respond to, and disrupt terrorist activity.
“The nature of terrorism has changed. Across the world there are more lone actors, rather than larger organised groups; as we saw with the March 15 attack on mosques in Christchurch two years ago, and the attack on shoppers in a West Auckland supermarket earlier this month,” Minister Faafoi said.
“New Zealand is not immune to this harm, and I want to acknowledge the trauma of the victims, families and communities affected by those terrorist attacks.”
Minister Faafoi stated that there was careful consideration during the development of the legislation, even allowing the public to provide their view to the Select Committee.
The Counter-Terrorism Legislation Bill was introduced in April this year. It received its first reading and referral to the Justice Committee last 5 May.
The Bill is the New Zealand Government’s first step towards implementing Recommendation 18 of the Royal Commission after the Terrorist Attack on Christchurch masjidain on 15 March 2019.
It is expected that the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Bill will come into effect from 4 October 2021.
Source: Beehive.govt.nz Media Release
Eliza is a content producer and editor at Public Spectrum. She is an experienced writer on topics related to the government and to the public, as well as stories that uplift and improve the community.
