Crimes (Offence of Failing to Report Child Harm) Amendment Bill

A link to the bill can be found here (please see the post in #hansard from earlier this week before you complain): https://www.parliament.nz/media/8410/crimes-offence-of-failing-to-report-child-harm-amendment-bill.pdf

General Policy Statement:

This Bill addresses the loophole in the law that is the denial of justice for victims of child abuse because of their families’ or others’ failure to disclose information to police. It does this by criminalising the non-disclosure of child abuse with a maximum penalty of imprisonment of three years. This requires anyone who knows, or ought to know, that abuse against a child hastaken place to report this to police. A person will know, or ought to know, abuse has occurred where someone sees abuse occur, sees physical signs of abuse, or is told by a child that they or someone they know has been abused. This is balanced by a ‘reasonable excuse’ defence which applies in cases where someone fears for their or another person’s safety, or believes that the information has already been disclosed by another person. The Bill is modelled on the Australian state of Victoria’s ‘failure to disclose offence’ which was introduced in 2014 to criminalise the non-disclosure of child sex abuse in response to a recommendation by the Victorian government in its 2013 Betrayal of Trust report. It recommended that “failure to report or concealment of an offence is more appropriately dealt with under the criminal law than under the welfare/child protection regime”.

B.1090 is authored by Simon Bridges (IRL Figure) and is sponsored by u/BryantMP (National) as a Private Members Bill.

Debate will end at 11:59pm 22nd of August.