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A raging battle over the ban on all corporal punishment of children in New Zealand is about to spill over from the news reels to the ballot boxes, as voters turn out for a referendum on the issue. Voters will be asked to say yes or no to the question "Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?" Yet the referendum, which has cost the country more than $7 million, is non-binding, and the government has already indicated that it is unlikely to change the law. Moreover, the phrasing of the question has itself been criticised. Prime Minister John Key called it “weird”, and said he does not intend to vote. Opposition leader Phil Goff says the same. On the question of smacking itself, organisations including Barnardos, Plunket, Save the Children and UNICEF, have joined forces to call on New Zealanders to vote 'yes'. Legitimacy Spokesperson Deborah Morris-Travers said that the Yes Vote Coalition stands apart from the 'pro-smackers' because of their long-standing reputations in New Zealand communities, giving their campaign greater legitimacy, particularly in the eyes of politicians and the media. “One of the things that was really important in the debate last time around, particularly for members of parliament, was an appreciation of the fact that we are offering services to families and communities up and down the country,” Morris-Travers says. “I think that’s the single biggest difference between us and the pro-smackers…they’re not in the business of service delivery, they’re conservative advocates. They’re not people who are working in communities to build stronger families.” She added that human rights are not just for adults. “It is a human rights issue, and when we uphold the rights of children, we uphold the rights of all of us,” she said. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, which New Zealand has ratified, asserts the right of children to their own physical integrity and protection from physical assault. “It’s all wrong for us to have a law that discriminates against children and makes them the only group of people in our country where if they’re assaulted, there’s a defence for doing so,” Morris-Travers says. “I think it’s really important for us to grant our most vulnerable citizens the same protection as every other group of citizens. “It is a massive social and cultural change for us to view children in a different way, but it’s really important that we do understand…that children are people now, that they are citizens with their own rights, and that…when we nurture them appropriately, we all benefit.” A ban on smacking in the country was introduced in 2007, but a determined clutch of 'pro smackers' have since waged a campaign against the State for tabling the legislation. Last year, the group gathered the necessary number of signatures to launch a referendum seeking to repeal the law. The postal ballot is scheduled to go ahead from 30 July to 21 August. The passing of the S59 Amendment Act in 2007 by Parliament-with a majority of 113 votes to 8-saw the demise of a parent’s defence of “reasonable force”. The old section 59 of the Crimes Act 1961 stated that “every parent or person in place of a parent of a child is justified in using force by way of correction towards a child if that force is reasonable in the circumstance.” The new law clearly states that the use of force for the purpose of correction is unjustified, giving New Zealand children the same legal status as adults and animals against the use of force and physical assault. The controversial change to smacking legislation has had little impact on day-to-day policing, a police review of crimes shows. New evidence that parents are increasingly shunning physical punishment as an effective method of parenting was also recently published by the New Zealand Herald. It shows a steep drop in the numbers of both mothers and fathers using smacking frequently or at all. The vast majority of people in New Zealand say an upcoming referendum on the so-called Anti-Smacking Bill will be a waste of tax dollars, according to a poll by Research New Zealand. 77 per cent of respondents think the vote on a piece of legislation dealing with domestic violence against children is not worth the money. [Sources: The New Zealand Herald; the Aotearoa Student Press Association via Salient www.salient.org.nz; www.stuff.co.nz]
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