MEDIA RELEASE 31 July  2009

Family First NZ says that the record number of registered voters for the Referendum shows that there is no confusion about the Referendum question.

“Sue Bradford has continued her attack on democracy and Referendums by insulting NZ’ers and saying they’ll vote yes when they mean no and vice versa. But it’s quite simple really – if you oppose the anti-smacking law, vote no – if you support the anti-smacking law, vote yes. What’s hard about that?” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.

“Even government funded groups who have attacked the question still have been able to figure out how to vote!”

“The attempts by politicians to attack the question and to threaten to disregard the result of the Referendum has actually had the opposite effect to what they possibly intended. It has rarked up voters because they feel like it’s more of the previous ‘we know better than you and we’re not listening’ attitude. NZ’ers hoped that we had moved on from that approach.”

“Because of this message, it is even more important that voters return their voting forms and send a strong message to the politicians on this issue.”

“The Citizens Initiated Referenda Act 1993 was introduced by politicians to allow NZ’ers to have a say on important issues. The people have met the very high benchmark set to have their say. The politicians must listen,” says Mr McCoskrie.
ENDS

In case you missed it….

TV3’s Campbell Live tonight featured Bob McCoskrie – Family First, Anton Blank - from Te Kahui Mana Ririki; Sheryll Savill - the instigator of the referendum itself; and the chief executive of Barnados New Zealand Murray Edridge  

http://www.3news.co.nz/The-referendum-begins-should-you-vote-yes-or-no/tabid/367/articleID/114573/cat/41/Default.aspx  (16′43″)

You can also comment on TV3’s website here
http://www.3news.co.nz/Online-debate—the-smacking-referendum/tabid/1153/articleID/114365/cat/980/Default.aspx

Barnardo’s Deborah Morris-Travers and Family First’s Bob McCoskrie debate the anti-smacking Referendum with Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB 29 July 09

LISTEN HERE

NZ Herald Jul 29, 2009
Children’s accounts suggest that most smacking is confined to a young age group of around 2 to 8. Eleven of the 14 Rangeview Intermediate pupils interviewed by the Herald who have been smacked say it was well before their present age of 11 or 12 - in three cases so far in the past that they can’t remember it at all. Only two have been smacked this year and one about a year ago.

A 2005 Otago University masters study by Terry Dobbs, based on focus group interviews with 80 children aged 5 to 14, also found that physical punishment declined with age from 58 per cent of children aged 5 to 7 to 42 per cent of those aged 9 to 11 and 29 per cent of those aged 12 to 14. Her study also found that support for physical punishment increased with age. Asked “Is it okay to smack or not okay to smack?” none of the 5- to 7-year-olds said it was okay, but this increased to 20 per cent of those aged 9 to 11 and 58 per cent of those aged 12 to 14.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10587251

NZ Herald Jul 29, 2009
Nineteen years after physical punishment was banned in schools, a sampling of children suggests that while most want the ban, there is still some support for smacking as a form of discipline. Ten out of 17 Year 7 pupils at Rangeview Intermediate in Te Atatu said they would vote no in the referendum which says: “Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?” Six would vote yes, a higher proportion than the mere 11 per cent of parents voting yes in a Herald/DigiPoll survey last weekend, but still a minority. One student was unsure.

The sample is tiny and makes no pretence to be representative beyond the fact that Rangeview is ranked decile 5, in the middle of the parental income scale. An intermediate school was chosen on the basis that the students, all but one of them aged 11, are old enough to have opinions but young enough for discipline to be fresh in their memories. The sample is likely to be biased against smacking because only 17 parents out of the class of about 30 returned permission slips for their children to take part. The chances are that parents who smack heavily were less likely to give permission.

Yet 14 of the 17 children still report having been smacked and, despite the official doctrine of non-violence at school, most believe their parents were right to smack them.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10587246&pnum=0

NZ herald Jul 29, 2009
An Auckland doctor says a quarter of New Zealand parents can’t control their children. Dr Robyn Theakston, a general practitioner in Three Kings, says the 2007 law banning the use of force for “correction” has made things worse by restricting parents’ disciplinary choices. “As a GP I am sometimes appalled by the results of poor parenting I see - excessive laxity, neglect and cruelty,” she wrote in a Herald online forum on the smacking referendum yesterday.

She told the Herald later that she saw many good parents, but she estimated that about a quarter of the parents she sees do not know how to control their children - far more than the number who treat their children too harshly. “You can tell a good parent because they can calm the child. The child trusts the parent. They feel the parent is in control,” she said. “Other children come in and the parents don’t know what to do. The child is not used to being told what to do so they wreak havoc.” She said many parents were too insecure to say no to their children.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10587270

NZ Herald Jul 27, 2009
It was every parent’s nightmare. Steve Boyd, 41, was wheeling his 4-year-old daughter Reikura in a trolley at Countdown in the Manukau City suburb of Botany. “She was playing up, pulling things off the shelf and putting them in the trolley, and pulling things out of my trolley and putting them in other people’s trolleys,” Mr Boyd says. “I said, ‘Reikura, you are not going to do that again!’ “She pulled out another thing. I slapped her hand. This lady went nuts. She told me I should have given her ‘timeout’ in the supermarket. She suggested I find a corner somewhere in the supermarket!” The suggestion seemed so absurdly impractical that Mr Boyd just carried on with his shopping. But he also knew that he could be formally guilty of assaulting Reikura by slapping her hand, breaching subsection 2 of the new section 59 of the Crimes Act which states: “Nothing in subsection (1) or in any rule of common law justifies the use of force for the purpose of correction.” “I gave this lady a $2 coin to go and complain,” he says. Nothing came of it. The smack worked, and Reikura settled down. She knows what’s right and wrong. She sat back in the trolley.”

Mr Boyd is among 35.5 per cent of New Zealand parents of 4-year-olds who smack their children at least once a month, according to a DigiPoll survey in the Weekend Herald. He’s also among the 85.4 per cent of the DigiPoll sample planning to vote “No” in the referendum which starts at the end of this week asking, “Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10586818&pnum=0

NZ Herald Jul 28, 2009
The Herald is running a week-long series on the smacking debate. A father says his family were left traumatised and his elder daughter tearful after Child, Youth and Family Services investigated a smack.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10586993

NZ Herald Jul 28, 2009
The Herald is running a week-long series on the smacking debate. A Wellington solo father says he went to Child, Youth and Family Services for help - and ended up with a conviction for smacking his daughter.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10586994