National's justice spokesperson Paul Goldsmith announced on 19 July 2026 that a re-elected National government would amend the Crimes Act to define sexual consent as something that must be "actively given" through words or actions. New Zealand law currently lists only what consent is not, rather than defining it. Under the policy there must be a "yes" rather than the absence of a "no", silence would not count as consent, and consent given once would not carry over. National says prosecutors would still have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that consent was absent.

The debate

Labour's Camilla Belich and Greens co-leader Marama Davidson accused National of walking away from cross-party work on a consent bill already before Parliament in order to turn the issue into an election policy, with Belich saying the reform was "ready to go". Goldsmith responded that Labour had six years in government and did not deal with it.