Send a Message

Those wanting to ban the institution of smacking as a parenting tool are fond of saying we need to send a message to society saying that child violence and abuse will not be tolerated.

Of course child violence and abuse should not be tolerated, ever. Yet why does society tolerate the level of bullying that goes on in schools? Send the bullies a message: charge them with assault. Send Chief Film Censor Bill Hastings a message terminating his contract for failing to guard NZ from the gratuitous, gory and sexualized violence he routinely passes for viewing. Send the TV programmers, the video and DVD importers a message that they'll need to take their violent shows and games elsewhere. Sack the Abortion Supervisory Committee and send the consulting physicians to jail for allowing the illegal abortion-on-demand situation in New Zealand to expand unchecked every year. The damage and death caused by these things is well documented (see www.FamilyIntegrity.org.nz).

Repealing Section 59 of the Crimes Act will do a lot more than send a message about banning smacking: it will in fact strip parents of their authority to parent effectively. Trying to ban smacking is going for the wrong target: the overwhelming majority of New Zealanders apparently see smacking as a valid, useful and effective tool for training and discipline: 80% do not agree with a ban on smacking, according to a poll done for the Justice Department in 2001 (see www.justice.govt.nz/pubs/reports/2001/children/ex-summary.html). Target those who practice the violence that is already roundly condemned, yet continues unchecked: bullying, over-the-top TV violence and the illegal abortions on demand in this country.

ENDS

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