New South Wales Consolidated Acts

CRIMES ACT 1900 - SECT 545B

545B Intimidation or annoyance by violence or otherwise

(1) Whosoever--

(a) with a view to compel any other person to abstain from doing or to do any act which such other person has a legal right to do or abstain from doing, or

(b) in consequence of such other person having done any act which the other person had a legal right to do or having abstained from doing any act which that other person had a legal right to abstain from doing,

wrongfully and without legal authority--

(i) uses violence or intimidation to or toward such other person or that other person's spouse, de facto partner, child, or dependant, or does any injury to that other person or to that other person's spouse, de facto partner, child, or dependant, or

(ii) follows such other person about from place to place, or

(iii) hides any tools, clothes, or other property owned or used by such other person, or deprives that other person of or hinders that other person in the use thereof, or

(v) follows such other person with two or more other persons in a disorderly manner in or through any street, road, or public place,

is liable, on conviction before the Local Court, to imprisonment for 2 years, or to a fine of 50 penalty units, or both.

(1A) To avoid any doubt, for the purposes of subsection (1)--

(a) a person who uses intimidation to coerce a person to have a termination performed, including for the purposes of sex selection, is taken to have used intimidation to compel the person to have the termination, and

(b) a person who uses intimidation to coerce a person to not have a termination performed is taken to have used intimidation to prevent the person having the termination.

(2) In this section--

"Intimidation" means the causing of a reasonable apprehension of injury to a person or to the person's spouse, de facto partner, child or dependant, or of violence or damage to any person or property, and
"intimidate" has a corresponding meaning.

"Injury" includes any injury to a person in respect of the person's property, business, occupation, employment, or other source of income, and also includes any actionable wrong of any nature.

Note--:
"De facto partner" is defined in section 21C of the Interpretation Act 1987 .