Crimes Amendment Bill
This bill changes several New Zealand laws about crime. It makes it easier for ordinary people to detain someone they catch committing a crime, but they must contact Police straight away. It creates new offences for punching someone in the head or neck when they can't defend themselves (sometimes called a 'coward punch'), and for assaulting police, ambulance staff, firefighters, or prison officers. It increases prison terms for slave dealing and human trafficking. It also creates a new fine system for shoplifting from stores, and adjusts the dollar amounts used to determine how seriously theft is treated.
What this affects
Tap a topic to see how this bill touches it, and the parts of the text that show it.
The bill creates new crimes, increases penalties for existing ones, and changes the rules about when everyday people can detain someone they see breaking the law.
culpable homicide not amounting to murder is manslaughter if it consists in the killing of a person by a strike to their head or neck in circumstances where they had limited or no opportunity to defend themselves
A person commits an offence if the person assaults any first responder acting in the course of their duty
replace '14 years' with '20 years or a fine not exceeding $500,000 (or both)' [for dealing in slaves and dealing in people under 18]
A person, other than a constable, who arrests a person as contemplated in subsection (1) must, as soon as practicable, make contact with the Police and follow all directions given by the Police
Progress through Parliament
Have your say
This bill is open for public submissions to the Justice Committee. Anyone can tell the committee what they think, and you don’t need to be an expert. Submissions close 15 February 2026.
Bill 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.