Reassurance over smacking bill

Police advice to the Cabinet on the bill removing the defence of "reasonable force" when disciplining children says there are enough safeguards in the system to prevent parents being prosecuted for trivial offences.

The 2003 advice was included in submissions presented to a parliamentary select committee yesterday on the Crimes (Abolition of Force as Justification for Child Discipline) Amendment Bill, which seeks to repeal section 59 of the Crimes Act.