Credit Where Credit's Due

It was heartening to hear the Prime Minister yesterday talk about the repeal of Section 59 as a success:

"There's only been the one now documented case and I'm satisfied that the law is working."

John Key could have just as easily jumped on the far-right bandwagon and claim to be taking a stand against the 'nanny state',* but instead chose to look at the facts - that there are no examples of 'good parents' being criminalised for disciplining their children. This stance is entirely consistent with the statement which Key made when the bill passed.

With both the Labour and the National Party supporting the current legislation, a return to a legal defence of child abuse is supported only by the ACT Party and a few far right fringe groups.**

The Family First-led referendum is a complete waste of money, and not only because 96% of our MPs belong to parties which oppose it, but because the question being asked is loaded and confusing, and doesn't address the legislation in question at all.

It was music to my ears to hear the referendum organiser, Larry Baldock get mauled by Sean Plunket this morning. Plunket was at his attack dog best and didn't give Baldock an inch. Interestingly, Baldock was unable to give an example of a parent being criminalised for smacking their children, until he was pushed, when he resorted to James Mason's case - Mason was convicted of punching his four-year-old son in the side of the head, but according to Baldock was either entitled to punch his four-year-old in the head or was let down by the justice system.

Vote Yes for a Law that's Working.

* National's Wellington Central candidate, Steven Franks used the 'anti-smacking bill' as an example of the 'nanny state' multiple times on the campaign trail last year, despite the entire National Party caucus voting for the third reading. Scary that the former ACT MP is only two heart-beats away from being a National list MP.

** I would tell you who those groups are (other than Family First), but the Vote No website is returning a '401 Authorization Required' at the moment. Incidentally, it's very difficult to separate Family First from the Vote No crowd - their tweets seem to go up at almost exactly the same time. The Vote Yes website is up and running though.

Comments

[GNZ]

People do tend to make a big fuss over things like this.

Technically I suppose the law makes most parents criminals and at the same time makes the law more consistant across adults and children protecting more of those children - in practice it appears to do neither.

Either side is welcome to give up and save me my 9 million although I suppose it would be easier for the yes vote to give up given the no vote has 300,000 people who signed up to get a referendum and you cant exactly ask them all to take it back.

[Clint Heine]

Far right?? Who are these imaginary people?

[Jeremy]

Clint: Rodney Hide, Heather Roy, Roger Douglas, John Boscawen, and David Garret, Family First. You know, the only people publically advocating that the right to beat children should be restored.