New laws to help authorities crack down on stalking have passed State Parliament.
The reforms, developed in consultation with victim support services and the justice sector, lower the threshold required to prove the offence of stalking, making it easier for authorities to take action against perpetrators.
The reforms reduce the threshold for criminal offending, in order to capture a broader range of harmful stalking activities. The reformed stalking offence will cover stalking with intent to cause any physical or mental harm instead of only serious physical or mental harm.
The reforms will also ensure the offence will apply even if a person who does stalking activities did not specifically intend to cause harm or fear, but should reasonably have known that the conduct would be likely to cause harm or fear.
Further, to address misconceptions about what the types of behaviour that constitute stalking, the offence will now also be known as 'stalking and harassment' – which incorporates broader activities that can constitute the offence, including harassment via communication and surveillance technologies
As put by Kyam Maher
Stalking and harassment are vile forms of offending with particular effect on those seeking to leave abusive relationships and it's essential that authorities have every tool available in their arsenal to help combat it.
These changes will help to hold perpetrators to account, and also better define what constitutes this type of offending.
These reforms also update the types of behaviours that can be considered stalking and harassment, to ensure new and emerging forms of technology – such as using devices to track a person's movements or to monitor their communications – are also covered.
