Why are the questions in citizens-initiated referenda always written by idiots? You want people to vote for your cause, right? So frame the question so people who agree with your position tick the ‘yes’ box. Simple? But they keep getting it backwards. Remember the first one?
“Should the number of professional firefighters employed full time in the New Zealand Fire Service be reduced below the number employed on 1 January 1995?”
So, if you agree with the referendum organisers that firefighter numbers shouldn’t be reduced you have to say ‘no’.
Then there’s the question for the child-beaters’ referendum:
“Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?”
‘If you agree with me, vote no on my referendum’. How dumb is that? And, oh yeah, a smack isn’t illegal as part of good parental correction now, so the question doesn’t actually ask for a law change. Guess they couldn’t just write ‘do you want it to be OK for adults to assault children with horsewhips, belts, and pipes just because they’re the kids’ parents?’
Anyway, Barnardos, Save the Children, UNICEF, Plunket, and probably some other pro-child wackos have set up a campaign to vote ‘yes’ on the referendum. I wish them luck. They’ll be helped by all those people saying to themselves ‘yep, I wanna be able to hit me boy when I gets angry, beats using me brains’ and ticking yes.
PS. You’ll get to vote yes by postal ballot in July and August this year.
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