Wednesday, May 02, 2007

National to vote for the anti smacking bill


National is to vote for the anti smacking bill after National and Labour agreed to an amendment last night. They should have done this ages ago. They should have gone further.

What the amendment says
To avoid doubt it is affirmed that police have the discretion not to prosecute complaints against parents of any child, or those standing in place of any child, in relation to an offence involving the use of force against a child where the offence is considered to be so inconsequential that there is no public interest in pursuing a prosecution.

This amendment conflicts with the stated purpose of the bill, being to remove force for the purposes of corrective discipline. This amendment allows force through police discretion, and the amendment can be a defence in court if police unnescessarly prosecute.It is a compromise, it is not ideal, but it may be politically achievable.

What the leaders should have added is that if police have discretion not to prosecute, they also have discretion as to whether they report such discipline to Child,Youth and Family. Its my understanding that as the bill stands, police will have to report all such reported discipline to CYFS. So if they have discretion in prosecuting, they should also have discretion in notification to CYFS.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dave
I've emailed John Key your blog.
One thing Stephen Franks taught me is LOOK OUT for the unintended consequences of law.
make sure you don't stuff up peoples lives in ways you don't want to.

I'd trade him for 50% of labours caucus any day.
Best
MikeNZ

Nigel Kearney said...

It is not a compromise. The new section is a restatement of what the law would be anyway. It doesn't change the legal effect of the bill in any way.

Anonymous said...

Dave
I want to amend my last post here.
I'd trade Stephen Franks for all of the sods.

MikeNZ

Anonymous said...

Dave
I'd like to amend that again.

I'd trade Stephen Franks for all of Nationals leadership team too!
Oh mustn't miss out Peter Dunne.
What his team must think of him right now.
I'd be livid if I were them.

Let's start counting the prosecuted or investigated parents somehow for election day in 2008?
MikeNZ