Editorial: Review should be good news

OPINION: Those who have watched celebrity psychologist Nigel Latta on television or read his books will know that political correctness is not something he has a lot of time for.

When it comes to the question of parenting, Mr Latta pulls no verbal punches. He says what he thinks and doesn't apologise for it.

He originally opposed the so-called anti-smacking legislation introduced by former Green MP Sue Bradford, which removed the defence of "reasonable force", so it wasn't a surprise that he was a controversial choice to carry out a review of the legislation following a referendum which overwhelmingly supported dropping the law. He was the independent panelist on the review team which also included Police Commissioner Howard Broad and Social Development Ministry chief executive Peter Hughes.

Now, despite his initial opposition to the legislation, Mr Latta has come up with an interesting finding, saying parents "can relax" about the legislation.

He said none of the cases highlighted by the pro-smacking lobby as supporting their contention that good parents were being made into criminals for smacking stood up to scrutiny.

In other words there were other legitimate reasons, aside from a light smack, for intervention in each case.

Mr Latta said he had observed how police and Child Youth and Family (CYF) responded to reports of smacking and in each case the response was appropriate.

"In all of the case studies that I reviewed, it was clear that there were other aggravating features involved.

"And in fact, if CYF and the police hadn't turned up to those cases I would have been asking why they hadn't," he said.

In his view, then, concerns about how the law would be applied have been misplaced. Parents don't appear to be ending up in court just for a light smack.

It's asking a lot to expect the pro-smacking lobby to back off in the light of this review, but for those parents with no interest in that fight but a genuine desire to do the best for their kids, hopefully this review and some new initiatives put in place will provide some reassurance. A light smack will not see them dragged before the courts.

Supermarket:

GIVEN that New Zealand is still emerging from an economic recession brought on by the global credit crisis, the opening yesterday of the new New World supermarket in Timaru has to be good news for the city and indeed for much of South Canterbury.

With job cuts the norm in recent months, there's no doubt that the 75 new jobs the venture is reported to have created will have a big impact.

- © Fairfax NZ News