In November 2024, the Government introduced the Crimes (Countering Foreign Interference) Amendment Bill to strengthen New Zealand’s criminal justice response to foreign interference and espionage.
The Bill adds new offences to the Crimes Act 1961, and modifies and extends existing offences related to espionage and the wrongful communication, retention, or copying of government information.
The Bill is part of a wider cross-government work programme intended to counter foreign interference from any country. The changes made by the Bill support this work by strengthening New Zealand’s criminal justice response to foreign interference which enhances our overall resilience to this unacceptable activity.
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Foreign interference is an act by a foreign state, often through a proxy, that is intended to disrupt or subvert New Zealand’s national interests by deceptive, corruptive, or coercive means.
It is different from appropriate forms of foreign international relations activities. These include, for example, trade negotiations, diplomatic dialogue, formal meetings of political leaders, transparent lobbying, and other acts of open and cooperative engagement with the New Zealand Government, businesses, universities, community groups, and the wider public. These are part of the way that states normally interact.
When a foreign state is no longer open about its activities in New Zealand, or relies on improper or covert methods to advance its strategic interests, this is foreign interference.
Interference activity can occur in many ways and target a broad range of New Zealand sectors including our government, academic institutions, media, businesses, and communities.
Our intelligence and security agencies report that political interference largely takes the form of attempts to deceptively influence policymakers. The agencies also report that our refugee, migrant, ethnic and religious communities are also frequently targeted as some members are considered dissidents by foreign states. Community members are being harassed and monitored, and attempts are made to prevent them from developing or expressing views a foreign state considers subversive.
Foreign interference is a significant national security risk with wide-reaching negative implications for New Zealand. It threatens our sovereignty, erodes trust between states, and can undermine our security, democratic institutions, economy, and the safety of people in New Zealand.
The criminal law holds people to account for committing harmful acts. The Bill responds to harmful foreign interference in several ways, primarily by adding two new offences to the law that contains many of New Zealand’s serious offences – the Crimes Act 1961.
New offence #1 – Improper conduct for or on behalf of foreign power
This offence criminalises the act of foreign interference. To commit the offence, a person must be doing an activity for a foreign state, and the person’s actions must include all three of the following key elements – they:
know, or ought to know, they are acting for a foreign state, and
act in a covert, deceptive, coercive, or corruptive manner, and
intend to, or are aware that they are likely to, harm a New Zealand interests specified in the offence through their actions.
The offence holds people to account for undertaking interference activity targeting New Zealand interests that affect everyone, including our security or defence, the conduct of elections, and government decision-making. It also protects individuals and their communities by criminalising activities that aim to undermine personal safety and security, or the exercise of rights and freedoms.
This is a serious offence and has a maximum penalty of 14 years’ imprisonment. To ensure that only people who commit foreign interference are captured, the offence does not criminalise the activities of people who:
are not acting for a foreign state
do not know, or have no reasonable way of determining, that they are being used by a foreign state as part of efforts to undertake foreign interference against New Zealand, or
are acting for a foreign state in an open, transparent, and lawful manner.
New offence #2 – Commission of imprisonable offence to provide relevant benefit to foreign power
Some activities that are used to undertake or support foreign interference are already criminal offences in New Zealand. These include, for example, intimidation, blackmail, corruption, and the use of violence. The significance of these criminal acts, and the harms they cause, increase when they are committed in New Zealand to help a foreign state to advance its strategic objectives.
To recognise the greater harm, this new offence applies to a person who commits an imprisonable offence to benefit a foreign state in any of the following ways:
to support its foreign intelligence activities
to enhance its political, economic, military capability or influence, or
to advance its coercive influence over people inside or outside New Zealand.
All non-criminal activities done to benefit a foreign state will remain lawful and permitted.
This offence is designed to complement the foreign interference offence. The foreign interference offence will capture activities meant to cause harm to New Zealand. This offence acknowledges that a harm has occurred, then focuses on it being done to benefit a foreign state.
The maximum penalty for this offence is 10 years’ imprisonment.
Other amendments in the Crimes (Countering Foreign Interference) Amendment Bill
In addition to the new foreign interference-related offences, other changes to the Crimes Act strengthen protections against activities that can prejudice New Zealand’s security or defence. They focus on the transfer of sensitive information from New Zealand or the unauthorised release of certain types of government information. These changes include:
strengthening accountability for unauthorised disclosure of government information by:
expanding the scope the current wrongful communication, retention, or copying of information offences to address notable gaps, such as local government information
making it explicit that unauthorised sharing of military tactics, techniques, and procedures is an offence. This provides certainty for when this type of sensitive information can be lawfully disclosed, and
ensuring that information that was formerly government information continues to be within scope of relevant offences as it still has the potential to prejudice the security or defence of New Zealand if it is disclosed without authorisation.
introducing a definition of “person who owes allegiance to the Sovereign in right of New Zealand” into the Crimes Act to provide greater certainty about who can commit the offence of espionage and a small number of other offences that contain this term including the offences of treason; inciting to mutiny; and the wrongful communication, retention, or copying of official information.
introducing new offences to address gaps related to criminal liability for the offences of espionage, treason, and inciting to mutiny.
You can read the Bill, track its progress through Parliament, and find out how to make a submission on these changes by using the links below.
Information about the Bill in Parliament and making a submission(external link)
Read the Bill on the Legislation.govt.nz website(external link)
Information related to the Bill or the Bill's policy can be accessed using the links below. Links to further information, including proactively released Cabinet papers, will be provided as the documents become available.
Regulatory Impact Statement [PDF, 2.3 MB]
New Zealand Bill of Rights vet [PDF, 309 KB]
Translated material about the Bill and the select committee process will be available on the Ministry for Ethnic Communities website in over 20 languages. Links to this material will be available soon.
Further information on foreign interference in New Zealand and the Government’s response to this activity
Foreign interference and espionage are core issues in New Zealand’s 2023-2028 National Security Strategy. Government agencies are working together, and with local government, business, academia, elected officials, and communities, to build our resilience to foreign interference threats.
The links below provide more information about the National Security Strategy, the Government’s response to foreign interference, and examples of foreign interference activity in New Zealand being observed by our intelligence and security agencies.
National Security Strategy(external link)
Government's Countering Foreign Interference Work Programme(external link)
New Zealand Security Intelligence Service annual threat assessments(external link)
If you think that you, or someone you know, may be being targeted by foreign interference, you can report it to the New Zealand Police as a suspected crime or the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) as a general national security concern. Personal information and contact details do not have to be provided when making a report.
Information on reporting foreign interference to the New Zealand Police(external link)
Report foreign interference on the NZSIS website(external link)