To avoid doubt it is affirmed that police have the discretion not to prosecute complaints against parents of any child, or those standing in place of any child, in relation to an offence involving the use of force against a child where the offence is considered to be so inconsequential that there is no public interest in pursuing a prosecution.
Bradford agrees with the amendment, because, as she just said on Michael Law's radio show, it doesn't change her bill in any way whatsoever.
Why is this true?
This amendment is simply adding this as an extra clause to the Bill. It is not changing the re-write of Section 59 which is another clause in the Bill. So, the clause will not pass into the Crimes Act. It is simply a bit of commentary in the Bill. And as Bradford just said on Law's radio show, this is precisely what Police do now anyway.
And of course, parents who use reasonable force to correct their children do not use inconsequential force.....they use force that is going to have consequences....the consequence of present and future corrected behaviour. Police will have to consider this a criminal act.
And of course, CYFS is most likely still to be advised by police, even when the force is inconsequential, for the force is technically illegal. Here is where our greatest fear lies.
This is total and complete capitulation by National. They've surrendered completely.
by Craig Smith from Family Integrity
from the New Zealand Herald:
Ms Bradford welcomed the compromise. She said: "I don't think we needed this amendment at all in terms of what the bill was seeking to achieve but we needed it to reassure New Zealand parents and to achieve the kind of political consensus across Parliament."
So you see, Bradford is saying that the ammendment won't in fact change ANYTHING.
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