Iwi back anti-smacking law

Seven tribes representing a quarter of Maoridom have come out in support of Green MP Sue Bradford's "anti-smacking" bill.

The seven northern tribes of Ngapuhi, Te Aupouri, Ngati Kahu, Whaingaroa, Te Rarawa, Ngati Wai and Ngati Whatua have made a joint submission supporting the bill's proposed repeal of section 59 of the Crimes Act, which allows parents to use force "by way of correction towards a child if that force is reasonable in the circumstances".

Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia welcomed the submission yesterday as "consistent with the kind of leadership displayed" by the northern tribes on the issue.

Mrs Turia joined Labour, the Greens, Progressives and two Pakeha NZ First MPs in voting for the introduction of Ms Bradford's bill last July.

Ms Bradford, who is based near Kaitaia, said domestic violence was "a hot issue" in the Far North, where 45 per cent of the population is Maori. Maori children under 15 are killed at twice the national average rate.

"I have never seen the tangata whenua make such a clear statement across so many tribal groups before on this issue," she said.

"I know it's contentious on the Maori side, just as it is on the Pakeha side. But there is a determination of the iwi up here in the north to do everything they can to change the culture of violence which is in so many homes here."

The seven northern tribes have been partners since 2003 in a Whangarei-based consortium called Amokura, which has a contract with Child, Youth and Family to reduce family violence in the region.

Project manager Di Grennell said the decision to support Ms Bradford's bill was debated initially at a conference addressed by Children's Commissioner Cindy Kiro last year, and had since been endorsed by the seven iwi authorities.

"It's fair to say there were a number of debates around it," she said.

But she said the iwi acknowledged the high rate of Maori child abuse and were determined to reduce it.

"We are more interested in promoting messages that say that, even though the incidence is high, it's not culturally mandated and was not part of traditional care for children, so let's turn that around," she said.

The chairwoman of Te Runanga o Ngati Whatua, Naida Glavish, said she was brought up by her grandmother and was never hit, and she had raised her own children in the same way.

"This is reawakening the values of yesteryear - that the mokopuna, the children, are a reflection of the tipuna, the ancestors," she said.

Ngati Kahu chairwoman Professor Margaret Mutu said she also remembered that violence was not accepted in Maori society when she was growing up.

"If anyone dared to lift a hand to a child, the grandparent or someone else in the community just came and took them away, but they always stayed within the family."

She said that community support had gradually broken down as Maori had lost their land and scattered far from their tribal homelands.

"That's why Maori keep saying, let us handle this according to our own cultural norms," she said.

"That does mean we need to be able to live the way we want to live, which is among our wider whanau - not be pepperpotted around the cities.

"We need to be able to go back to our own land, and of course our lands have been taken away.

"That's why we are trying to get our land back."

However, a Ngapuhi NZ First MP who voted against Ms Bradford's bill, Pita Paraone, said family violence should be tackled by education, not legislation.

In the 2001 census, 141,690 people claimed affiliation to at least one of the seven iwi that made this week's submission.

They represented 24.6 per cent of the 576,981 Maori who stated their iwi links.