MPs hear conflicting views on smacking

Jurors must currently determine what constitutes reasonable force. Picture / Bay of Plenty Times

Parents, teachers and Christians told MPs today they should abolish corporal punishment in New Zealand's homes.

The speakers weighed in on a bill to repeal the legal exemption for parents who hit their children.

Parliament's justice committee is holding hearings on Green MP Sue Bradford's bill, which seeks to repeal Section 59 of the Crimes Act.

The section gives parents a legal defence for using "reasonable force" to discipline their children.

Sister Marcia Wilson, a member of the Sisters of Mercy, said it was time to outlaw hitting children at home, as had already happened at school.

"Why has it taken so long for this prohibition to come into homes?" she said.

Janet Gregory, a former lecturer at Massey University, said the legal exemption for parents who smacked their children made assault acceptable against children, even though it was forbidden against adults.

"Right now we legitimate the use of force," she said. "It's almost an expectation."

Some people at the select committee hearing spoke out against the proposed changes, saying parents would be prosecuted for disciplining their children.

A woman who described herself as a mother and former teacher told the committee members she was afraid parents would be punished for giving their children a "tap on the bottom."

"I don't want to be in a country where I'm too scared to smack my children," Rhonda Diprose said.

Mike Mckee, a Wellington man, said he hit his four-year-old son once and felt awful. But he said it was for the child's safety, and he didn't want police to investigate every allegation of parents smacking their children.

As an unintended consequence, Bradford's bill "will criminalise ordinary New Zealanders," Mckee said.

The majority of witnesses, however, weighed in on the side of Bradford's bill.

Maureen Hoy, a teacher for 35 years in England and New Zealand, said she had hit children twice "to my utter shame."

Once was a very rude young girl and another was a boy who "ran a pencil or a biro down my bottom," she said.

Changing the law so that parents are no longer permitted to hit their children would eventually change attitudes toward corporal punishment, she said.

Legislation "forces people to think about what they're doing," she said.

Douglas Wood, a member of the parish council of St Andrews On The Terrace, a progressive Presbyterian church, said Christians needed to focus on the New Testament teachings of Jesus, not the Old Testament notions of punishment.

"Parents, like all children, are required to show compassion and gentleness," Mr Wood said.

The justice committee could recommend changes to the law that would further define reasonable force, without eliminating the defence altogether.

Jurors must currently determine what is reasonable force.

The Law Society has urged a change that would prohibit striking children above the shoulders or inflicting bodily harm.

- NZPA