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FACT SHEET
Criminal Code Amendment (Bullying) Bill 2019
The Criminal Code Amendment (Bullying) Bill 2019 makes amendments to the Criminal Code
Act 1924, Community Protection (Offender Reporting) Act 2005, Family Violence Act 2004 and the
Justices Act 1959.
This Bill implements the Government’s commitment to amend the Criminal Code to make
serious cyberbullying a criminal offence.
The Bill amends s192 of the Criminal Code to:
Expand the fault elements to include:
o an intention to cause another person extreme humiliation;
o an intention to cause another person to self-harm.
Expand the list of actions capable of constituting a ‘course of conduct’ to include:
o making threats to the other person or a third person;
o directing abusive or offensive acts towards the other person or a third person;
o acting in another way that could reasonably be expected to cause the other
person physical or mental harm, including self-harm, or extreme humiliation.
Change the charge in subsection (1) to ‘stalking and bullying’.
Provide that a reference to mental harm in the section includes a reference to suicidal
thoughts.
Provide that the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions is required to
commence a prosecution for the offence of ‘stalking and bullying’.
Specify that the amendments made to s192 of the Criminal Code by s7 of the Criminal
Code Amendment (Bullying) Act 2019 apply only to offences alleged to have been
committed on or after the commencement of s7 of that Act.
Provide that Appendix A ‘Crimes for which Offender may be Arrested without
Warrant’ reflect the changes to the offence in s192(1).
The Bill amends Part 1 of Schedule 3 of the Justices Act 1959 to remove reference to the crime
of stalking (s192). This Bill also makes consequential amendments to the Family Violence Act
2004 and the Community Protection (Offender Reporting) Act 2005 to align the references to
s192 in these Acts with the Criminal Code.
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