Big News in the Herald

Dave Crampton from Big News has a column in the NZ Herald on the issue of smacking of children.

It is an excellent piece and I agree with Dave that “What is needed is reasoned debate on what constitutes reasonable force, or what constitutes assault in terms of physical discipline”.

Personally I can be persuaded to amend or remove Section 59 as a step towards lessening child abuse, but it does seem the real motivation for some is to use this as a proxy to campaign against smacking children at all, and equating smacking with child abuse is daft. The vast majority of parents know what is best for their child, and that may include smacking them if for example they try to run accross the road by themselves. The law should protect the children from the small minority of families who are abused, but should not be used to equate smacking with abuse.