This Bill amends the Crimes Act 1961 to repeal section 123, removing the offence of blasphemous libel from the New Zealand statute book.

The fact that blasphemous libel remains an offence under New Zealand law is anachronistic and contrary to basic tenets of free speech in New Zealand. Its retention is not supported by the churches that it was historically designed to protect. There has only been one, unsuccessful, prosecution for blasphemous libel in New Zealand, against the publisher of the newspaper The Maoriland Worker in 1922 for publishing two poems by the noted First World War poet Siegfried Sassoon.

More recent attempts to persuade the Crown to prosecute for blasphemous libel have been unsuccessful, and it is unlikely that the law would be used again.

An attempt was made in May 2017 to repeal the provision through a Supplementary Order Paper to the Statutes Repeal Bill in the name of Chris Hipkins, but this was opposed by National Party and Māori Party members and was defeated.