Invercargill: 83% Want Anti-Smacking Law Repealed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

"Don't Follow NZ" Warns Aus Lawyer

This article in from The Brisbane Times, emphasies my own.

Anti-smacking laws to punish Queensland parents who used "excessive force" to discipline their children could be too hard to prosecute, a lawyer has warned.

Moves by the Labor Party to toughen its stance on smacking were made at its state conference earlier this month, with suggestions the practice would eventually be outlawed.

But Brisbane lawyer Michael Bosscher, of criminal defence firm Ryan and Bosscher, said changes to the Criminal Code to make smacking illegal would be a legal minefield and would cause more problems than

He cited the example of New Zealand, where anti-smacking legislation had sparked a public backlash and had prompted calls for a referendum.

"It is amazing to think Queensland is considering going down this path when New Zealand is trying to reverse its decision," Mr Bosscher said.

"Our laws already provide the option to prosecute parents who abuse their children.

The move comes after shocking cases of children being abandoned outside casinos and hotels in South East Queensland while their parents socialised hit the headlines earlier this year.

Mr Bosscher said said practical difficulties would arise when police, lawyers and the courts tried to prosecute parents who smacked.

"The real danger with new laws is how you interpret and enforce them and there is a risk of zealous authorities prosecuting parents for minor smacks that would traditionally be seen as just part of parenting.

"There's this nanny state mentality here where the state government is imposing draconian laws upon families, in theory to protect children. However if you start prosecuting parents for smacking children, the potential to destroy families and therefore hurt children, is enormous.

"Anti-smacking laws would be a controversial issue to prosecute in the courts because one police officers definition of excessively hard smacking could be radically different from another officers view.

Mr Bosscher said Queensland laws currently allowed parents to use "reasonable force" to discipline their children.

"A change to the Criminal Code is not needed. The law already has provision to prosecute parents- or any person- who inflicts serious, grievous or bodily harm on a child," he said.

"What they are really talking about is changing the law to brand parents as criminals. This is wrong and is not needed in Queensland."

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.

Latest study unreliable

www.stuff.co.nz | Friday, 14 December 2007 reports...

"Three out of four young parents physically discipline their children - and one in eight have seriously assaulted them - a Christchurch study reveals."

"The study, completed before smacking was outlawed, asked 155 parents under 25 how they acted towards their children in the previous 12 months, taking into account punishments such as smacking and assaults such as burning and choking.

Researchers concluded the use of child physical punishment was likely to be common among young parents and up to 12 per cent engaged in "harsh or abusive treatment".

Lead researcher Canterbury University Associate Professor Lianne Woodward said social and family background had a big influence on the parents' use of physical punishment..."
Click here to read the rest of the article

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155 parents were surveyed says the Newspaper report. This "research" cannot be taken seriously, as it cannot posssibly be representative of the population of Christchurch, let-alone the rest of New Zealand. Look how fast Kiro is to jump at it and say "see, we've got to change". The study was done prior to the bill passing into law, so quite apart from anything else, the results are irrelevant to today.

12% of the parents surveyed apparently admitted to having beaten their children up at some stage. What demographic was surveyed? It seems pretty improbable that anyone would admit in a survey to having beaten up a child.

"punishments such as smacking and assaults such as burning and choking." - This is well put, it clearly seperates smacking from abuse. Smacking is classified as punishment while burning and choking are said to be assult. It's pretty obvious that these are assult. However we've got Sue Bradford and Cindy Kiro and their colleagues screaming out bloody murder, claiming that a parent who cares enough about their child to give him/her a loving smack now and then is a heartless child-abuser.

Over-all, the statistic that 75% of young parents smack their children comes as no surprise. The finding that 12% of young parents abuse their children however, is rubbish. We know for a fact that child-abusers form a very small percentage of our population.

It’s OK to Smack – American College of Pediatricians

This is a highly significant article. Must read.

Family First Media Release | 4 December 2007 | click here for article

The American College of Pediatricians (ACP), a national medical association of licensed physicians and healthcare professionals who specialise in the care of infants, children, and adolescents has released a position statement on the smacking of children.

“This research backs up the argument put forward by Family First and other pro-family groups against Sue Bradford’s anti-smacking law,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First.

“The ACP reviewed the available research on corporal punishment and concluded that disciplinary smacking by parents can be effective when properly used. They say that the evidence suggests that it can be a useful and necessary part of a successful disciplinary plan when not relied upon solely to control their child’s behaviour.”

“They say that smacking is most appropriate with children 2 to 6 years old, and when milder types of correction have failed.”

The ACP has published a one page handout for parents titled “Guidelines for Parental Use of Disciplinary Spanking.” This can be viewed [by clicking here]

They have also published an extensive review of the scientific literature on smacking.
Family First is welcoming this balanced, objective and thorough research on the issue of smacking by professionals.

“It flies in the face of the blind ideology peddled by the UN, politicians, Children’s Commissioner, and child welfare agencies who have failed to identify and deal with the real causes of child abuse,” says Mr McCoskrie.

Family First continues to call on both the government and other political parties to change the current law on smacking so that parents who use the types of smacking recommended by the ACP are not committing a criminal act, and not be at the mercy of police discretion or unwarranted CYF investigation.