Budapest Convention and Related Matters Legislation Amendment Bill
This bill changes how New Zealand Police and other law enforcement agencies can ask companies — like phone and internet providers — to keep hold of digital data before it gets deleted. It also updates the rules around electronic surveillance and searching digital records. It creates a new type of legal instruction called a 'preservation direction' that stops data from being erased while police apply for a proper court order to get it. Some of these changes help New Zealand work with overseas police agencies on international crime investigations.
What this affects
Tap a topic to see how this bill touches it — with the parts of the text it’s based on.
Police get a new power to order companies to freeze digital data before it can be deleted, while they apply to a court for permission to officially access it.
79F Commissioner may make preservation direction: On an application made under this subpart, the Commissioner may make a preservation direction against a person if satisfied that the conditions specified in section 79E for making the direction are met.
79O Failing to comply with preservation direction: A person commits an offence if the person, without reasonable excuse, fails to comply with a preservation direction. A person who commits an offence against this section is liable on conviction, if they are an individual, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 1 year; or if they are a body corporate, to a fine not exceeding $40,000.
79I Duration of preservation direction: A preservation direction against a person is in force until the end of the period specified in the direction (not exceeding 20 days after the date on which the direction is made).
Progress through Parliament
Have your say
Submissions open once a bill reaches the select committee stage. In the meantime, you can write to your local MP about it.
Write to your MPBill text sourced from legislation.govt.nz (Parliamentary Counsel Office). Arapono’s summary and breakdown are drafted with AI grounded in that official text and reviewed by an Arapono editor for accuracy and neutrality before publishing. Arapono is non-partisan and takes no position on this bill.