Authority Removed

To ban smacking, the anti-smacking lobby wants to see parents dispossessed of any legal authority to use any force at all with their children. This is the aim of Sue Bradford's Amendment Bill asking to repeal Section 59 of the Crimes Act. She says so herself in the explanatory note of the Bill: "The effect of this amendment is that the statutory protection for use of force by parents and guardians will be removed."

Denied the use of any kind of force, smacking being only one of many kinds, parents would be reduced to bribery and coaxing, to trying to reason with a child too immature to reason, and to all kinds of

manipulation: verbal, psychological and emotional. This last can even become emotional blackmail, the worst of all, denying what they should never deny, their love and attention, in order to get the children to do as they should. This and a lot more are explained at www.FamilyIntegrity.org.nz.

The Bill to ban smacking is way over the top. It takes too much authority away from the parents. Just like the police, a city council and the IRD, without the use of force to back up your authority, you end up having no authority.

Submitted by:

Craig Smith
National Director
Family Integrity

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