The State Government will soon consult with key stakeholders – including the legal profession and victim services – on moves that would see important changes to the existing stalking laws.

The Government is looking to update the laws to reflect new and emerging technologies that perpetrators may use to unlawfully stalk or harass an individual – such as using electronic devices to track someone’s movements or monitoring a person’s e-mail account or internet browser. The proposed changes also make clear that stalking or harassing behaviours can occur on social media or any other online platform.

The current laws require the prosecution to prove the defendant intended the stalking or harassing behaviour to cause serious physical or mental harm, or serious apprehension or fear. The Government will consult on changes that would remove the reference to requiring ‘serious’ harm, apprehension or fear.

This would lower the threshold to prove the offence and would capture a broader range of activities that would qualify as unlawful stalking or harassment. 

The Government will also consult on changes to add an alternative objective test that the defendant ought reasonably to have known that the conduct would cause the victim harm, apprehension or fear.

Another key proposed change is to update the name of the offence from ‘unlawful stalking’ to ‘unlawful stalking and harassment’, to emphasise that the existing offence already captures a broad range of unwelcome behaviours directed towards the victim.

This is intended to address common misconceptions about how the laws work and the type of behaviour that is covered under the existing ‘unlawful stalking’ offence, reflecting initial feedback from the Commissioner for Victims’ Rights indicating that victims can often be unaware that what they are experiencing may constitute stalking.

These reforms will be introduced to Parliament later this year.