KEY POINTS:
Green Party MP Sue Bradford has urged opponents of her child discipline law to move on after a petition failed to get the necessary signatures to force a referendum.
However, Kiwi Party leader Larry Baldock, who organised the petition, said he would press on and try to get another 20,000 signatures in two months before re-submitting the petition.
The petition was handed to the Clerk of Parliament on February 29, and needed 285,027 valid signatures - 10 per cent of the total number of registered voters on that day.
Mr Baldock said 324,511 signatures were collected.
This is well above the limit required, but so many have been ruled out during the checking process that they have ended up with a shortfall.
The Government statistician had said his best estimate was there were 267,000 valid signatures, Mr Baldock said.
He said the Government statistician had used a "bizarre" formula in wanting a sample size of 1/11th carefully checked.
The Clerk's Office said that 29,501 signatures were checked and 3373 could not be found on the voters' roll, 214 were illegible, 158 were duplicates and two were triplicates.
Others might have been on the voters' roll but could not be confirmed because inadequate information was supplied.
Mr Baldock said the organisers had already collected an extra 20,000 but would be aiming to get at least another 20,000 before they re-submitted the petition.
If they manage to collect enough during the next two months, and get the petition accepted, a referendum will be held at the same time as the next election.
It will put the question: Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?
Ms Bradford's legislation outlawed the defence of reasonable parental correction in assault cases.
It was passed 113-8 after a last-minute amendment put forward by National stating police did not have to pursue inconsequential smacking.
Ms Bradford said today she was not surprised the petition failed to collect enough signatures.
There had been massive public debate on whether it should be legal to hit children in the name of discipline.
During the course of that debate, many people had come to realise there were better ways to raise children that did not involve violence.
"I don't believe there is an appetite among political parties or the public for making the physical punishment of children lawful again," she said.
Since the law was changed in New Zealand, five other countries - Portugal, Uruguay, Venezuela, Chile and Spain - had also given children the same legal protection as adults, she said.
While she supported the democratic right of the petitioners to continue their cause, she believed there were more "fruitful" ways for Mr Baldock and his colleagues to use their time and money in the interests of children, Ms Bradford said.
- NZPA
