This omnibus bill amends several Acts to align New Zealand law with the Budapest Convention on cybercrime so the country can accede to it. It introduces a regime for preservation directions and expands mutual assistance arrangements with foreign countries.
Parliament advanced this bill under urgency (committee of whole house, second reading) — moving it through faster than usual, with less time than normal for public submissions.
These are claims MPs made in Parliament’s debate — not verified facts.
This bill changes New Zealand law so the country can join the Council of Europe's Convention on Cybercrime, the Budapest Convention — the leading international treaty for cooperating against online crime. It creates or updates powers to rapidly preserve electronic evidence (such as stored computer data that could otherwise be deleted), obtain data through production orders, and share evidence and requests with overseas authorities. It amends statutes covering search, surveillance, mutual legal assistance and extradition, affecting police, prosecutors and businesses that hold digital data.
Accession puts New Zealand alongside dozens of countries in a shared framework for investigating cybercrime and cross-border digital evidence. Supporters argue crime is increasingly online and borderless, so faster preservation powers and international cooperation are needed to catch offenders and help victims of hacking, fraud and online abuse. Critics raise privacy and civil-liberties concerns about expanded preservation and data-sharing powers, worry about oversight and the risk of assisting countries with weaker rights protections, and question safeguards on how broadly the new powers can be used.
See the Parliament.nz ↗ site for the full bill.