Smacking petition falls short

"The smacking bill has been in for a while, and that hasn't stopped parents from putting kids in clothes driers, has it?!"

... well, must be time to legalise murder and theft then, since making them illegal hasn't seemed to stop them happening ...

If you have evidence that the tally has been added up incorrectly Colin, perhaps you should put it out there for everyone else to see? Unless, of course, you're just making wild accusations without any basis??

Again, where can we sign this petition?

Where do I sign aswell

You really have to laugh at comments like this and other similar comments from other non-parents.

Parents are never going risk smacking a child even if it would stop them endangering themself or another child for fear the it could go to court. I know the police or court would accept this as being justified, but no parent wants their family to go through this process.

You think about the situation where a child goes to kindy or school and says Mum or Dad smacked me. The teacher would need to report this as it would be irresponsible for them to make a decision as to how serious the smack was (the teacher could not risk the chance this is a serious situation).

Perhaps you might like to also think about a situation where a child is throwing stones at cars. Of course parents are going to talk to their children about this and explain why this is so dangerous. You think about how you would address it if they continued to do it... Then instead think about if the second time the child threw stones at a car it broke the windscreen and kills the driver - sometimes you have limited chances to correct behaviour.

Sign the petition.

Clearly NO ONE actually gets what the bill is about and it apears that NZ has fallen victim to gross mis information. This is not an issue of wether you have the right to disapline your child reasonably or the government controlling your life. This is about the much bigger picture of NZ's gross and disgraceful culture of violence. We have a domestic abuse problem. Everyday i read about all the children who are killed in NZ and then i read about all the people who sign this petition to remove the bill that could actually make headway into changing that culture. It's not about you - it's about our future as a nation and it's childrens rights to have a chance at an abuse free life.

You need to read betweeen the lines of this bill and see the effects it can have on the real victims and criminals.

The effects of such bills are never immediate but they do change culture over time.

Yeah, I'd sign this. That way when the referendum comes around we can populate the "Oddly Enough/Weird 'n'Wacky" news columns of websites around the world as we vote on whether or not we should be able to hit our children legally.

About time we get our 15 minutes of fame, right?

Please... this was NEVER an anti-smacking law - it is the removal of an old law which allows the use of force against a child. The laws governing abuse of women and animals were removed years ago. Would you like to reintroduce them as well?? This private members bill was to remove statute 59 - that's all

If you are beating your kids enough to be prosecuted in the first place(the requirements for this have not changed), then you deserve to be convicted for it.

The only change in the bill is to remove a defence for abuse which was a very grey, and very broad, that allowed actual child abusers to get off charges.

Anyone complaining about this bill - how often have you had the police knocking on your door for discipling your kids? Never? Well done. This law won't affect your life at all.

If you bothered to educate yourself about the law, you would find that the one exception is when stopping the child from endangering themselves - I'm no lawyer but grabbing them and pulling them away from a jug of water or hot iron would probably come under this

Under your argument here, it would probably be more of a learning experience for the child to let them touch the iron and therefore let them associate touching hot irons with "bad things" happening. Of course instead you could take the time and effort to explain the concept to them without any harm coming to them at all.

For more info, I found the following web site / link.

http://www.familyfirst.org.nz/index.cfm/SIGN_THE_PETITIONS