Labour MP Louisa Wall says disgraced National Party candidate Jake Bezzant would have been prosecuted if her proposed law, currently making its way through Parliament, was in place now.
It comes as another woman claims she too had her images misused by the former Upper Harbour candidate.
Jake Bezzant was an up-and-comer within the National Party's ranks, he was the candidate for Upper Harbour at the 2020 election, taking over from Paula Bennett in what was thought to be a safe seat, however he lost to Labour's Vanushi Walters in October.
Behind the smile though, he was the subject of a police investigation.
He has been accused of imitating his former partner using her nude images and videos to engage in online sex but in the end no charges were laid.
Bezzant resigned from the National Party on Tuesday night.
“I just felt like I was at my wits end .. I don’t know how else I could go about the situation and stand up for myself,” Bezzant’s former partner, Tarryn Flintoft says.
Netsafe chief executive Martin Cocker, says at the moment, for someone to be charged under New Zealand’s Harmful Digital Communications laws, “there needs to be proof they were intending to harm another person”.
Labour MP Louisa Wall is proposing that requirement be done away with.
She says it would mean justice.
“Most of them say they did it as a joke or they say they've done it for their own end, it had nothing to do with the actual victim, but the reality is it's all about the victim. In the future if people like Bezzant do what they do they will be prosecuted,” Wall says.
According to Netsafe, about five per cent of New Zealanders say they've either had images shared or they've had the threat of image sharing so “clearly it's a big issue - people are not feeling deterred from doing it,” Cocker says.
Wall's bill currently has support from all parties and she's confident that will continue. It carries a maximum term of three years imprisonment or a $50,000 fine.
“We know that this barrier exists and so those prosecutions would fail today but they will be successful in the future," she says.
"It's akin to being raped, that's what the emotional response is,” Wall says.
SHARE ME