Labour claims National abandoned bipartisan sexual consent reform to campaign on it

Author: Adam Pearse,
Publish Date: Sun, 19 Jul 2026, 11:33am

Labour is claiming National walked away from a bipartisan effort to modernise sexual consent laws so the party could campaign on it in the upcoming election.

National is dismissing the claim as justice spokesman Paul Goldsmith criticises both Labour and the Green Party for not addressing the matter while in government.

Goldsmith, speaking from Auckland today, announced a re-elected National Government would reform sexual consent clauses in the Crimes Act to ensure “there must always be a ‘yes’, rather than an absence of a ‘no’”.

“Unlike other jurisdictions we normally compare ourselves with, New Zealand law does not define what consent is,” Goldsmith said.

“Rather, the Crimes Act provides a non-exhaustive list of what consent is not.”

The party would change the law to specify consent had to be “actively given”, communicated through “words or actions”.

“The change would align the law with what we’ve been telling our kids for a long time: that you need positive consent before sex, each and every time, rather than presuming it.

“That means silence is not consent. A person who doesn’t say no has not said yes. And consent given once is not consent forever.”

Goldsmith said the change would reset “social expectations”, reinforcing that sex was understood to be actively chosen by both people involved.

He said the change wouldn’t shift the burden of proof in sexual cases.

“The prosecution will still need to prove beyond reasonable doubt that consent wasn’t given, and that the defendant didn’t believe on reasonable grounds that it was.”

Labour MP Camilla Belich quickly responded to the announcement by pointing to a bill, drafted this year in her name on behalf of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians committee which is a group of all female MPs, that proposed to make similar changes.

However, she claimed National decided not to support progressing that bill in this term of government, alleging the party wanted to campaign on it ahead of this year’s election.

“This reform is ready to go, National can choose to act now or continue to delay,” Belich said.

“This should never have become a political issue. MPs from across Parliament worked together to develop this Bill because New Zealanders deserve consent laws that are clear, modern and fit for purpose.

“It’s deeply disappointing National walked away from those bipartisan discussions. If they are serious on reform, why wait?”

Responding to Belich’s criticism, Goldsmith insisted he was not playing politics.

“This is a serious matter and of course Labour had six years in government and they didn’t get around to dealing with this.”

Goldsmith, who had argued the Government’s justice workload had been large, wouldn’t be drawn on whether he had any concerns about Belich’s bill but he indicated he felt it important to involve justice officials in a “full policy process”.

“This is an important area of law that we need to get right.”

Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald’s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland.