Wagner Nicky: Crimes (Intimate Covert Filming) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Wagner Nicky: Crimes (Intimate Covert Filming) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
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NICKY WAGNER (National) 
: 
 The Crimes (Intimate Covert Filming) Amendment Bill is a place where the combination of new technology and salacious behaviour can be controlled. Technology has supercharged the role of the peeping Tom. Right now our laws protect us from Tom’s eyes only but armed with cellphones cameras and videos Tom can present his eyeful to the world and we have no legislation to stop him. The convergence of technology the melting pot of telecommunications computers and the Internet can turn Tom into something new and fabulous. Without any great talent or training and definitely with no permission he can be the peeper the photographer and the publisher. 
Overseas and particularly in the US intimate covert filming has become extremely popular and that has triggered specific legislation against it there. But there have been incidents of that sort of behaviour in New Zealand. We have heard some examples already tonight about teenagers—boys and girls—dressing and undressing and about a case from my home town of Christchurch where a technician working in the local operatic society installed a hidden camera in the dressing room of the leading ladies. That sort of behaviour is not acceptable to Kiwis. We believe that all people have the right to privacy when they are minding their own business—whether naked or semi-clothed—in a place they can reasonably expect to be private. Everyday activities like dressing and showering are considered private; they are not activities that people should peek at or take photographs of. Furthermore it is not reasonable to expect that one might find oneself without making a deliberate decision naked or semi-clothed in images that are being circulated locally in photos or on a cellphone camera or even internationally on an Internet site. 
The bill is designed to update legislation in order to close a loophole created by those new technologies and it amends the Crimes Act 1961. It includes the offences of making an intimate visual recording possessing an intimate visual recording and publishing importing exporting or selling an intimate visual recording. That intimate visual recording can be a photograph a videotape or a digital image. An intimate visual recording is a recording that is taken without the knowledge or consent of the subject when he or she is either naked semi-clothed or engaged in sexual activity or when the recording is taken under or beneath a person’s clothing. At first glance the idea of taking photos beneath or through someone’s clothing seems to be a little obscure but that was before I read about shoe cameras walking-stick videos “up-skirt” and “down-blouse” photographs and video voyeurism. Those types of gadgets give a whole new meaning to “peeping Tom”. They allow for serious invasions of privacy and at times they are linked with serious sexual offending—voyeurism being a gateway offence. 
The covert filming of people in intimate situations and the distribution of images will often have a sexual element but not always. It will however always be an invasion of privacy as it concentrates on activities that are for the majority of people private. Covert filming can have serious consequences for filmed subjects. They can be deeply distressed and feel violated and diminished when they are considered to be mere objects for another’s gratification. The exploitative and often sexual nature of such conduct requires that it be treated as a criminal offence. The bill provides that anyone who intentionally or recklessly makes an intimate visual recording of another person is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years. This is in line with overseas legislation which generally treats voyeurism as a crime with a maximum period of imprisonment that varies but is commonly set at about 2 years—although I believe that Canada is proposing 5 years. 
Under the New Zealand bill it is also an offence to possess an intimate visual recording with a liability of imprisonment for 1 year. If one knowingly and recklessly publishes imports or sells an intimate visual image one is liable to 3 years’ imprisonment. A distinction here has been made in order to exempt Internet service providers. That is of course because they just provide the medium for publishing the pictures just like a photographic paper maker provides the paper but is not responsible for what is printed on the stock. There is also an exemption from liability under the bill for people who possess or publish intimate visual recordings as part of their work including the police the Customs Service members of the SIS the Department of Corrections and lawyers. 
National supports the Crimes (Intimate Covert Filming) Amendment Bill. It is an amendment that updates the law so that it can manage new technology and the innovative uses of that technology that modern-day peeping Toms have created.