KEY POINTS:
National Party leader John Key has failed in his bid to reach a compromise over Green Party MP Sue Bradford's controversial bill to change the law on smacking.
The MPs met for an hour in Parliament yesterday and Mr Key asked Ms Bradford to accept an amendment to her bill which would ensure parents did not break the law if they lightly smacked their children.
She said she could not do that. After their talks the problems that have divided Parliament and caused bitter debates remained unsolved.
"I'm deeply disappointed and frustrated," Mr Key told reporters. "We came to the party with a genuine compromise ... we're now back in a position where if a New Zealand parent smacks a child for the purposes of correction they are breaking the law and they will be at the mercy of the police, whether or not they choose to prosecute."
Ms Bradford said Mr Key's amendment was not much different to a previous one proposed by National, which is likely to be defeated in a vote next week.
"There's no way I could see my way clear to accepting any kind of amendment which defined the use of force that was acceptable to be used on children," she said.
"I think John Key supports the intention of the bill in terms of trying to reduce the level of violence against children. But I think he wants those parents in the middle ground to feel legitimised in the use of force against their kids. I cannot go to a stage where the bill legitimises that."
National strongly opposes the bill in its present form and Mr Key was hoping to find a way through so his party could hold a common position with Labour and the Greens. Ms Bradford does not need National's support to get the bill passed into law because she has 63 votes behind it. A majority in Parliament is 61.
The bill removes from the Crimes Act the statutory defence that allows "reasonable force" to be used to correct children. Opponents say that means even the lightest smack would be a criminal offence.
Supporters say smacking has been illegal for more than 100 years but the defence is allowing people to get away with savagely beating children.
Ms Bradford insisted yesterday the bill was not a ban on smacking.
"It's an anti-beating bill. I've always had problems with it being called an anti-smacking bill," she said.
"It isn't aimed at criminalising all parents who ever occasionally or lightly smack their children. It would be quite a different-looking bill if that was what we were trying to achieve."
Mr Key said she could not have it both ways.
"They want to ban thrashing and bashing and we 100 per cent support them in that. But they're also saying they want parents to have confidence that they won't be criminalised if they lightly smack their children - that is the amendment we put up."
Mr Key said he would take his amendment to the Labour Party to seek support for it. "Frankly, we don't see that going very far either."
The next debate on the bill will be next Wednesday, but with National still opposing it progress will be slow.
It is not expected to come up for its final third reading vote, which will put it into law, until late next month or early June.
- NZPA
