Policing Bill Sparks Fears Over Protest Crackdown
Civil liberties advocates are warning the Government’s new Policing Amendment Bill could dramatically expand police surveillance and protest powers with alarmingly little public scrutiny — raising fears New Zealand is sleepwalking into a far more authoritarian policing model.
Law Society worried Policing Amendment Bill could lead to clampdown on political protest
The Law Society here is worried the Policing Amendment Bill which is making its way through Parliament with strong police backing will clamp down on political protest.
“It’s a clear parallel,” said Timothy Roberts, president of the New South Wales Council of Civil Liberties.
There is evidence behind the concern – the Independent Police Conduct Authority last year found police exhibited a lot of uncertainty and inconsistency about the limits of lawful protest and what the restrictions should be, and called for explicit laws to protect protesters’ rights.
The New Zealand bill was hurriedly drafted without public consultation.
The bill’s first part would expand police intelligence-gathering powers; its second part would expand their powers to declare areas off-limits ahead of time in case of imminent public disorder. It would extend the power beyond roads to many public places, and add an instant $1,000 infringement fee for someone who entered or did not leave a zone, plus adding a new offence of failing to give police identifying details.
What the bloody hell is this madness?
Expanded intelligence-gathering powers by Police and the right to call a protest illegal and start fining and arresting everyone?
WHY. WOULD. YOU. GIVE. COPS. THESE. POWERS???
Protest rights are democratic rights
This isn’t a right-wing or left-wing issue, it’s an us vs the bloody state issue!
I am deeply suspicious of any increase to the already enormous intelligence powers they have and giving them the discretion to decide when a protest is illegal is an enormous curtailing of democratic rights.
Why expanded surveillance powers should alarm everyone
The cops already have enormous-intelligence gathering, are we seeing the GCSB giving Police new capacities to target activists?
This has been rushed through with very little scrutiny while massively expanding police powers.
This isn’t how you make good law, this is how you abuse it.
The UK is moving to limit peaceful protest. Our regime will be watching closely as they plan to do the same here.
The UN special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Gina Romero, has called on the UK to uphold its international human rights obligations.
” The entry into force of the UK Crime and Policing Act on 29 April introduces provisions fundamentally incompatible with international human rights obligations regarding the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, association, and expression, and the right of participation ”
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/news/2026/05/14/protest-rights-erosion/
The ” move on ” legislation about to have its first reading in parliament is laying the groundwork for the inevitable curtailing of the right to protest.
No Right Turn is calling it the anti protest law.
” National has introduced its new anti-homeless law to Parliament, and it will receive a first reading next week (which puts them up against it if they want it to pass before the election). The law is a disgusting piece of social cleansing, drafted to enable the police to hide the consequences of National’s failed economic policies. But its worse than that, because in addition to enabling social cleansing, it is also, like their anti-boy-racer law, an anti-protest law. The new “move-on” order powers apply not just to people begging or rough sleeping (which is bad enough), but also to anyone “behaving in a manner that is disorderly, intimidating, or threatening”, “behaving in a manner that is disruptive” (being “disruptive”, whatever the fuck that means, is not a criminal offence), “unreasonably obstructing, hindering, or preventing someone from entering or leaving a place where a lawful trade, business, or occupation is being conducted”, or “breaching the peace”.
https://norightturn.blogspot.com/2026/05/another-anti-protest-law.html
This is a reflection of goverment. When goverment moves away from serving the people they are meant to represent and towards special – moneyed class – interests…then the need for a strong police arm to help manage the fall out of these special interests, is needed. We got a taste of this during Covid…and Palestinian action groups in the UK are getting a taste of the new, improved version of the government/police state.
Basically, the ‘control grid’ is being built up around us and the world is none-the-wiser. With the future of work looking shaky, the ability of the State to manage this uncertainty as befits the interests of the moneyed class, this is looking sound.