Irrelevant fringe group “Family First” really only has one drum, so I guess that they have nothing better to do except continue to beat it. But they really are (to mix my metaphors) flogging a dead horse:
Poll: People want smacking law changed
Better headline – “Poll: People tend to agree with leading questions”.
Three out of four people back a law change to allow “correctional” smacking of children, a poll has found. But a child advocacy group says correctional smacking remains unacceptable.
The poll of 1000 randomly selected people was undertaken by Curia Market Research for advocacy group Family First.
Respondents were asked whether the anti-smacking law should be changed to state that “parents who give their children a smack that is reasonable and for the purpose of correction are not breaking the law”.
Of those asked, 77 per cent said yes, the law should be changed.
And had they been asked whether the anti-smacking law should be changed to make it more likely that parents who beat their children get off scott free then presumably an even greater percentage of them would have said “no” (as of course both Family First and their polling monkey are only too well aware).
A spokeswoman for Justice Minister Judith Collins said there were no plans to review the law “as the justice sector is focused on other priorities”.
Anthea Simcock, chief executive for advocacy group Child Matters, did not want to see the law changed. “The current act makes it quite clear that hitting children as a correctional action is not acceptable and that people cannot hurt a child and then claim as a defence that they were using ‘reasonable force’.”
That’s all that needs to be said about a political issue that is dead and buried for everyone except “Family First”.
And now for something completely different…
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