Govt fails to make anti smacking bill a Govt bill

The PM has announced that the anti smacking bill will not become a Govt Bill. She claims that NZ First were happy for this to happen, but I doubt this because the official explanation given doesn’t add up.

Clark claims it was unlikely to be able to be passed into law before Easter, even as a Government bill. But this is not the case. The Government has almost no bills on the order paper and could make this the first priority. On Tuesday they could 5.5 hours of debate and on Wednesday 4.5 hours. That is 9 hours to finish committee stage which is more than enough. You could then do third reading on Thursday which is a two hour debate and there are three hours available.

They’re tried to ram it through under urgency and failed. They’ve tried to make it a Government bill and failed. This is not a good look.

And talking of the bill, people should read this Manawatu Standard article where Police confirm that every complaint of smacking will not only be investigated by Police, but names will be passed onto CYFS. Big Brother will be watching!

Also Peter McC blogs how in the UK teachers are actually being given the power to use reasonable force to restrain unruly pupils and break up fights etc.