AP News, May 16th, 2007
Parliament passed a measure Wednesday that tightens New Zealand's existing laws against child abuse but still lets parents spank or otherwise discipline their children using "inconsequential" methods.
The new rule outlaws child beating, closing a loophole in the country's Crimes Act that the measure's supporters said had led to recent acquittals of parents who had beaten their children with pieces of lumber, electrical cables and even a riding crop.
The measure passed 113-8 and is expected to come into force within a month. Opponents _ while saying no one supports child abuse _ claimed the changes intrude too far into people's homes and make police the judges of appropriate parenting.
The new law gives police the discretion "not to prosecute complaints ... involving the use of force against a child where the offense is considered so inconsequential there is no public interest in proceeding with a prosecution."
The previous loophole, which allowed "reasonable force," had been used in court to defend parents against convictions for assault on a child, which carries penalties ranging from a fine to imprisonment.
Opponents in and out of parliament have said the bill amounts to a ban on slapping or smacking, and would turn thousands of parents into criminals. The legislation was deeply opposed by some parents and prompted death threats against its author, Green Party lawmaker Sue Bradford.
The vote means New Zealand children can grow up "without the threat of legalized violence being used against them," Bradford told Parliament.
Minority New Zealand First Party lawmaker Brian Donnelly said the bill was "not about smacking ... but the far too permissive levels of violence we mete out to our children."
Nadine Block, executive director of the Ohio-based Center for Effective Discipline, told The Associated Press the new ban will help law enforcement get to a situation before it becomes abuse.
"In other words, when people are known to hit children, that is going to stop," said Block, whose organization works for the abolition of corporal punishment of children. "Where now, nothing can be done unless there are bruises or injuries, it's going to stop a step earlier. It will be a chance to get to people at an earlier state."
New Zealand ranked among the worst in an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development group of developed countries in child health and safety, according to a UNICEF report this year.
The report, published in February, showed that New Zealand children die from accidents and injuries at a higher rate than in any of 24 other developed countries.
Of the 15 indicators for which New Zealand figures were available, the country was in the bottom half of countries in 10.
Opposition National Party lawmaker Catherine Rich said New Zealanders are "saying goodbye to horse whips, pieces of wood and all sorts of other implements that have been regularly used on children in the name of discipline."
____
Associated Press Writer Tracee Herbaugh contributed to this report from New York.
