Borrows amendments 'go too far', says child abuse expert

The National Party amendment to the Crimes Amendment Bill will return New Zealand to square one where hitting children is still sanctioned by the law, says leading child policy expert Dr Ian Hassall.

Dr Hassall, New Zealand's first Children's Commissioner and a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Public Policy at AUT, says the amendments proposed by National MP Chester Borrows go too far and will nullify the effect of the legislation.

The Bill to protect children from abuse was expected to pass its second reading in Parliament today. Mr Borrows, a National MP on the justice and electoral select committee, wants to alter what constitutes "reasonable force" in the legislation.

"If the Borrows amendments are passed children in New Zealand will be worse off, as will New Zealand's international reputation as a country which hopes to do better for its children," says Dr Hassall.

"Mr Borrows has said that his amendments are a sensible compromise which protects good parents from criminalisation. But the Bill as reported back to Parliament in December by the select committee is already a compromise on Sue Bradford's original Bill, and provides ample protection for good parents against criminalisation.

"Mr Borrows' amendments go too far and reinstate section 59 in such a way that it can and will be interpreted by courts and juries in exactly the same way as the present law has been interpreted.

"The signal will be to parents who assault their children that Parliament upholds their 'right' to do so. This is what happened in Canada when they passed a similar amendment in 2005 defining how and when children should be struck."

ENDS

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