2009 Research, 83% NZers say Change Smacking Law

Press Release, Family First, 18 March 2009

Almost two years after the passing of the controversial anti-smacking law, more than 80% of NZ’ers still want the law changed and 77% say that the law won’t have any effect on our unacceptable child abuse rate.
These are the key finding of research commissioned by Family First NZ, following on from similar research in 2007 and 2008. The Curia Market Research poll surveyed 1,000 people, and also found huge confusion over the legal effect of the law.
83% said that the new law should be changed to state explicitly that parents who give their children a smack that is reasonable and for the purpose of correction are not breaking the law (85% in 2008, 82% in 2007).

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Key Findings:
83% say the law should be changed – only 13% say to keep it as is
77% says the law won’t help reduce the rate of child abuse in NZ
Less than one third of respondents actually understand the law

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“This is essentially the same question that will be put to NZ’ers in the Referendum at the end of July. The government can save $8 million of taxpayer funding towards the cost of running the Referendum during a recession, and amend the law now,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.

Respondents were also asked whether the new law makes it always illegal for parents to give their children a light smack. 55% said yes, 31% said no, and 14% didn’t know.

“This proves just how confusing the law is to parents and it is this confusion that is causing huge harm. Parents have been given conflicting messages by the promoters of the law, legal opinions have contradicted each other, and on top of that is police discretion but not CYF discretion to investigate.”
“Parents have a right to know whether they are parenting within the law or not. This law has just created confusion and as a result, good parents are being victimised,” says Mr McCoskrie. “Meanwhile, the rate of child abuse continues. This flawed law must be fixed and the real causes of child abuse confronted.”

The poll was conducted during the week beginning March 9, and has a margin of error of +/- 3.2%.

Below are two graphs from the Press Release

Herald Singing a Different Tune Now

The Herald's Editorial on 28 May 2008 read "Spare us a smacking referendum". In the article they state:

"Why, then, is Mr McCoskrie's group unable to let this unpleasant subject rest? Why is a petition circulating to put the issue to a referendum that could be held with the general election this year? The public must be heartily sick of this non-issue. Smacking children is simply not worth further debate. There are, as every sensible parent knows, better ways to correct bad behaviour, but if parents sometimes use more primitive means the law can be reasonable."

And now on 29 September 2008, they come out saying that...

"The anti-smacking law is still enormously unpopular, a Herald election survey has found. It reveals that more than 500 out of 600 people polled don't agree that smacking children is a criminal offence."

The article goes on...

"Sixteen months after the bill passed in a political compromise supported by Labour and National, the in-depth poll also found strong resistance and scepticism about the watered-down version of the law.

The issue will be tested in a referendum next year, forced by 310,000 people who signed a petition organised by Kiwi Party leader Larry Baldock.

The Herald asked people from Cape Reinga to Fiordland the question to be put in the referendum: "Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?"

Of those polled, 503 (86 per cent) answered "no", 52 said "yes", 28 were equivocal and 17 did not answer the question..."

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Invercargill: 83% Want Anti-Smacking Law Repealed

A survey by Invercargill MP Eric Roy shows a majority of Invercargill residents want to bring back smacking and ban cellphone use in cars.

The survey was sent to 21,500 homes in Invercargill and asked questions on issues from health to a passenger train service.

Almost 12,000 responses had come back and random sampling had been used to come up with statistics, Mr Roy said.

A total of 83 percent of people responding to the survey wanted to repeal the "anti-smacking" legislation removing a legal defence for parents to hit their children.

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12,000 responses out of 21,500 surveys is a very high response rate, and so the result of 83% will be extremely close to reality.  And surprise surprise, it also backs up what we have been saying for a long time now: "83% of Kiwis don't want the Anti-Smacking Law".  Read the rest of the article here at The Southland Times

There's that 83% Again

...it just won't go away. www.littlies.co.nz is currently running a poll asking the following question:

One year on, do you think the anti-smacking Bill has proved to be effective?

Yes (8%)

No (83%)

Unsure (9%)

Poland: Hitting children is bad, Smacking is not

from www.polskieradio.pl 02/06/2008

The majority of Poles are in favour of a legal ban on hitting children, but at the same time they don't see anything wrong in an occasional smack, a poll published in Rzeczpospolita reveals.

The daily writes that the shocking news of child abuse that have recently shaken Polish public opinion and the government's declarations that spanking children will be prohibited, have little influence over parents' convictions. The daily reminds that in 1990 the Council of Europe demanded that Poland introduce relevant regulations to Polish law.

The Polish National Health Fund is to be abolished, Gazeta Prawna informs. The government wants to divide the central institution into several regional organisations. The decentralisation of the Fund is to end in introducing private health insurance institutions in 2012. In that way, as the Health Minister explains, the health care market will become more competitive as the patients will be able to choose were to pay their money for treatments.

Nasz Dziennik writes that the new Czech health care law is likely to cause Polish-Czech abortion tourism. The new regulations in the Czech Republic provide for almost unlimited access to the procedure of abortion for all foreign women. According to the daily, this situation will weaken the very strict Polish anti-abortion law, as the Polish women will be able to legally end pregnancies in the neighbouring country.

Can't find the poll that this information has been taken from - but the Poles have it right, "hitting and smacking are two different things entirely".

TVNZ poll shows Majority of Kiwis Still Opposed to Anti-Smacking-Law

Update - 4 June 08: Outcome of poll

" Do you think the anti-smacking law should stay?"
Yes: 12%
No: 85%
Click here to view the poll results

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TVNZ is currently running a poll on their website, asking

" Do you think the anti-smacking law should stay?"

Currently 17% of voters think that the law should stay - and 79% think that the law should not stay. This has been my experience when out on the street collecting signatures for the petition asking "should a smack be a criminal offence". 90% or more of those I speak to are opposed to the law, and more than happy to sign the petition.

Smacking Poll - Kiwis Don't Want to "Move On"

Press Release 26 May 2008
More than half of our mums with young children flouting the law

A year after the passing of the controversial anti-smacking law, opposition to the law change is growing. These are the key finding of research commissioned by Family First NZ, following on from similar research in 2007. The poll surveyed 1,018 people and found continued overwhelming opposition to the new law.

Opposition to the anti-smacking law has increased from 62% last year to 73% now. Only 19% strongly or somewhat agreed with the new law despite the Police discretion clause (down from 29% in June 2007). Almost half of the survey (47%) strongly disagree with the ban on smacking.

85% said that the new law should be changed to state explicitly that parents who give their children a smack that is reasonable and for the purpose of correction are not breaking the law (up from 82% last year).

In a clear message to political parties seeking support for the upcoming election, when asked whether their support for a party would be affected if they promised to change the law, 37% said they would be more likely to vote for that party (up from 31% last year). The number of people whose vote would be unaffected by a policy to change the law decreased from 59% last year to 53% this year.

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KEY FINDINGS
73% oppose the anti-smacking law (47% ‘strongly disagree’)
85% say the law should be changed
37% say they are more likely to vote for party that promises change to the law
More than half of mothers with children under 12 admit to flouting the law
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Of most significance is the finding that almost half (48%) of parents with children under 12 openly admit that they have flouted the law and have given their child a smack to correct their behaviour. Over half of the mums polled (51%) confessed to continuing their use of smacking.

“This result is surprising, and a huge concern to us,” says Mr McCoskrie. “For a new law to be ignored by so many people who are willing to risk a police or CYF investigation indicates just how out of step with reality this law is. NZ’ers have not been fooled by the claims of the anti-smacking lobby that smacking is child abuse, they haven’t been duped by arguments that children are damaged by reasonable smacking, and they have understood that our unacceptable rate of child abuse has far deeper root causes that a loving parent who corrects their child with a smack on the bottom.”

“Good parents have become victims of a badly drafted law.”

When asked whether they thought the new law was likely to help reduce the rate of child abuse in NZ, 79% responded that it was not at all likely (up from 77% last year).

As a result of these survey findings, Family First is calling on MPs to amend the Act, so that the law explicitly states that reasonable smacking for the purpose of correction is not a criminal act.

The poll was conducted during the week beginning May 12, and has a margin of error of +/- 3.1%.

Click here for the full result of the research, Attitudes on Parental Discipline Poll 2008.