As part of the Government’s commitment to support government agencies to combat foreign interference in New Zealand, the Crimes (Countering Foreign Interference) Amendment Bill (Bill) was introduced and passed its first reading in November 2024.

 

The Bill defines foreign interference as “an act by a foreign state, often through a proxy, that is intended to disrupt or subvert New Zealand’s national interests by covert, deceptive, corruptive, or coercive means”. This can take the form of a foreign state covertly influencing or manipulating electoral processes or government decision making, or suppressing the views of individuals or a community that the foreign state perceives as undermining its authority.

 

The Bill’s Regulatory Impact Statement reveals that our intelligence and security agencies have advised that a small number of states engage in foreign interference in New Zealand, targeting our political, academic, media, and business sectors. An example is given of a foreign-state representative in 2022 who secretly worked with New Zealand based individuals to persuade a person with political influence to change their stance on a subject sensitive to the foreign state. The agencies also reported that our refugee, migrant, ethnic and religious communities are frequently targeted to stifle or control the views they express in relation to a foreign state.

 

To strengthen our criminal-justice response to foreign interference, the Bill would amend the Crimes Act 1961, introducing new offences that specifically target foreign state interference; these include:

  • a foreign interference offence to criminalise covert, deceptive, corruptive, or coercive conduct undertaken for, or on behalf of, a foreign power to intentionally harm or being reckless as to whether the conduct is likely to harm, core New Zealand interests, such as security or defence, elections, officials’ decision-making, and the exercise of human rights;
  • a new offence that would apply an uplift in penalty to an existing imprisonable offence (for example, intimidation, blackmail, and corruption) to recognise the additional harm involved to benefit a foreign power; and
  • new offences that address gaps in existing law related to criminal liability for offences of espionage, treason, and inciting to mutiny, to ensure that individuals (within and outside NZ) who owe allegiance to the Sovereign in right of New Zealand can be held liable as a party if they assist others with respect to these offences.

 

For the purposes of the Crimes Act, the Bill sets out the definition of “owes allegiance” to make it clear who can be held liable.

 

Penalties would range from up to 14 years in prison for intentional conduct, and up to 10 years for reckless behaviour. The offences would not apply to individuals who had no reasonable way of knowing they were being used to undertake foreign interference.

 

The Bill would also add local government and Offices of Parliament to the list of public bodies covered by the current wrongful communication of information offences.

 

The Justice Select Committee report is due 19 May 2025.