So when will Labour and Greens vote to repeal anti-smacking law?

Stuff reports:

Prime Minister John Key is shrugging off plans for a referendum on the government’s controversial asset sales plan, saying the issue has already been debated  on the campaign trail.

Labour, the Greens and NZ First are expected to join forces with groups led by Grey Power in launching a petition this week calling for a Citizens Initiated Referendum on partial asset sales.

Labour and Greens presumably think the results of the any referendum should trump the results of the election and that National should ditch the policy it got elected on, in favour of the referendum result.

Now that is a valid view (not one I agree with though), but if that is their view then why have they not announced  that they will be implementing the results of the anti-smacking referendum which voted 87% for a smack as part of good parental correction not to be a criminal offence in New Zealand?

Perhaps someone in the media could ask them how they can advocate a referendum on asset sales, yet they ignore the last referendum result we had?

Asked about the plans for a referendum today, Mr Key said: “We’ve had that, it was called an election.”

He said National had openly campaigned on the issue and won the election decisively.

“It was a one year election campaign strategy we ran….it was the sole focus of the election campaign, Labour spent all of their advertising dollars opposed to it and we debated it in every single public forum we had.  And National’s [vote] went up in office. It is only the third time a government in 123 years has done that.

This wasn’t some  minor obscure policy. As the PM says, Labour focused almost every advertisement on it. It was an issue in every leader’s debate, and I suspect at every MTC meeting held up and down New Zealand.