-
Related
Emotion over the anti-smacking bill reached almost unprecedented heights in parliament on Wednesday.
MPs debated the bill but failed to get to National MP Chester Borrows' amendment after opponents offered up a raft of amendments to allow further debate. That means the amendment to allow light smacking will not be debated for another fortnight.
Campaigner Sue Bradford is threatening to pull her anti-smacking bill if Borrows' amendment passes.
Borrows says by threatening to pull her bill, Bradford is not being a true MP.
However a disciplined set of Labour MPs did not waver from their support. The party's MPs have been whipped into backing the bill.
Labour MP Charles Chauvell says it is an historic bill which is long-overdue. He says it could be called The Sending a Very Clear Public Message That Violence Against Children is Unacceptable Bill.
But opponents are angry over what they say is another piece of legislation which aims to control New Zealanders' lives.
National Party deputy leader Bill English says he resents his relationship with his children being legally and fundamentally altered to prove a symbolic point. While National MP Nick Smith says it is another chapter of social engineering from Labour.
United Future MP Gordon Copeland calls Bradford's plan a dangerous piece of legislation and warned against going down that path. He says parliament is bringing actions like light smacking and taking children to time out, into the orbit of assault under the Crimes Act.
National MP Maurice Williamson agrees, calling the bill a nonsense. He says it criminalises parents, and as a parent he finds that offensive. Williamson says the state has no part in telling parents how to bring up their children.
And former Labour MP Taito Phillip Field told the House it is insanity and believes many MPs will regret supporting the bill because it will backfire. He doubts law enforcement agencies are going to be able to cope.
But Labour MP Lynne Pillay yelled across parliament at opponents, saying those against the bill have got it wrong and have been aided and abetted by the media. She says the bill is about people hitting their children with riding crops and getting off.
Pillay is chairwoman of the committee which agreed to amend current legislation to support Bradford's bill. Earlier in the week, she denied Labour had been whipped to vote in favour of it, only to be contradicted by the prime minister.
