Where does John Key and National stand on the "anti-smacking" law?

Bob McCoskrie has sent out an email explaining John Key's and National's position on the "anti-smacking" law.

We have been asked on a number of occasions where does National stand on the anti-smacking law, and will they change it if elected as the government.

Here's the answer...
Nats won't change child-discipline law, says Key
The Press 26 June 2008
National Party leader John Key has ruled out overturning the controversial child-discipline law if he becomes Prime Minister, despite championing a referendum on the issue. In Parliament yesterday, he accused Prime Minister Helen Clark of "ignoring the will of the New Zealand people" and urged a referendum be held on the so-called "anti-smacking" legislation at election time. His call came after Clark announced the Government had accepted official advice that it was too late to hold a referendum this year.

Asked by The Press afterwards if a National government would consider revoking the law as a result of a referendum, Key said: "No. The position as it has essentially always been since we signed a compromise (with Labour) is that if we see good parents being criminalised for lightly smacking their children then we will actively seek to change the law," he said. "But at this point, as the police report pointed out earlier this week, we haven't seen that at all. "The test we have is a pretty simple one. If the law doesn't work then we'll change it."
READ FULL ARTICLE http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/thepress/4596934a24035.html

Family First Comment :
We are currently researching a number of cases where good parents have been criminalised or had children removed by CYF for lightly smacking or correcting their children.

If you have been investigated or prosecuted by the police or CYF for 'light smacking', or know of someone who has, please email us in the strictest confidence bob@familyfirst.org.nz

______________________________________________________________

Email John Key NOW and ask him to not only respect our right to have a referendum and be heard but also to abide by the results of the referendum and not just change legislation when it suits him.

john.key@parliament.govt.nz

"prime minister smacks of arrogance" - John Key

With the numbers looking right for a referendum on the "anti-smacking" law to be given the go ahead the PM is getting nervous.

She said to the NZ Herald this morning "Just in terms of sheer organisation, I do not think that is possible".

But John Key is fighting back in the name of democracy saying "the referendum should take place at the general election in 2008 and quite frankly the behaviour of the prime minister smacks of arrogance and wasteful behaviour."

"You can't tell me that it will take more than two months to organise one simple question to be added to the ballot paper." he continues.

John Key then says "But this is about democracy, the right of people to be heard and it's the absolute height of arrogance that the prime minister is going to use a technicality within the law to circumvent people's rights to express their views on the issue."

But John Key has still made no commitments to overturn the law.

Rodney Hide has also joined in with Key saying

"Labour's anti-smacking legislation strikes at the very heart of how Kiwi parents raise their children, with both National and Labour saying they know best.

"ACT doesn't accept that they do - ACT backs parents, and we back Kiwis having a say about what they think the law should be," Mr Hide said.

The Global Flat Tax Revolution

It was Karl Marx who in the Communist Manisfesto advocated a "heavy progressive or graduated income tax" - which is exactly what we have in New Zealand.

hat-tip: ACT on Campus blog

Why do Anti-smackers get violent?

During the final days of collecting to get a democratic referendum on the "anti-smacking" law a disturbing story comes through from North Auckland.

This from Stuff.co.nz

Anti-smakers lose their cool

By GEMMA REDDELL - Rodney Times | Thursday, 12 June 2008

Anti-smacking supporters got violent at a gathering of signatures for the Citizens Initiated Referendum campaign last Saturday.

Whangaparaoa resident Arna Mountain was gathering signatures for the petition when two women, on separate occasions, started abusing her.

She says many people were eager to sign the two petitions, which ask ‘should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?’ and ‘should the government give urgent priority to understanding and addressing the wider causes of family breakdown, family violence and child abuse?’

She says she was shocked by what she sees as violent, anti-democratic behaviour.

"These petitions are asking for the democratic right to vote on what has been a contentious issue, but these two women seemed determined to intimidate the public and those collecting the signatures."

She says the first woman took offence to the gathering of the signatures and started yelling.

How dare we smack our children, she shouted. Mrs Mountain says she then started telling bystanders to "roll up and sign the petition that allows you to abuse your children and then kill them, yes murder them, come on sign up."

Later she was approached by another woman who asked if this was the petition to sign, then grabbed it, tore off the signed part and ripped it into pieces.

The destroyed petitions

"The woman then took the clipboard which had other completed forms underneath and took off.

I called her to give back the clipboard and the legal document she had torn. She threw it across the entrance-way and yelled about how smacking children was wrong," she says.

Mrs Mountain says that while she is shocked at the intensity of the behaviour, there are obviously a few people who are mistaken about what the petition is about.

"There are a few people who are completely unaware of the statistics that show that abuse and parental correction are completely different issues. No one in their right mind wants to abuse children. She says the vast majority of people are still against this law."

They received 144 signatures in a two-and-a-half hour period in Whangaparaoa.

Petition forms can be downloaded from thekiwiparty.org.nz under ‘referendum’ or from Orewa and Whangaparaoa libraries. The last date for signing is June 15.

Greens get it wrong ...... Again

The Green party has again spent YOUR money producing a calender to mark the Maori New Year (Matariki).

Green MP Metiria Turei who is behind the calender said, "Matariki is the only truly indigenous celebration that the whole country is aware of and partakes in,"

Since when?

Yes the greens do have trouble trying with interpreting public opinion and knowledge.

Greens ignore their members and the voting public

The green party places a lot of emphasis on the fact that their members rank their candidates on the list, but today the party has ignored there members and overridden the list in order to get Russell Norman into Parliament before the election.

Nandor Tanzos is resigning before the election so the next on the list in 2005 should become and MP. The next three MP's have decided to stand aside and let Russell into parliament.

So the question is raised, Why?

Well they are doing it so that Russell can travel around the country for free during the election campaign using OUR money.

Another point is that they are ignoring the 2005 list, the only one which the public have had a chance to vote on with their party vote.

Helen Clark dismisses the latest polls

How can Helen continue to dismiss the latest polls when they are now all giving national a 15-25% lead over Labour?

National is on 55% according to the latest One News poll and 50% according to the latest TV3 poll. The thing is we all know that One News is generous towards National and TV3 is generous towards Labour. So if we take an average of the last 4 major polls (TV1, TV3, NZ Herald and Fairfax) we will see where Labour and National are more likely to be polling.

National 55% TV1
National 50% TV3
National 56% Fairfax
National 51.5% NZ Herald

Average National support: 53.125%

Labour 29% TV1
Labour 35% TV3
Labour 29% Fairfax
Labour 36.2 NZ Herald

Average Labour support: 32.3%

So I would predict a gap of about 20.8%, Still a landslide to National.