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The Prime Minister is defending the anti-smacking law after a poll found it is massively unpopular.
Eight-six percent of those polled said smacking children should not be a criminal offence. Six hundred people were polled and more than 500 did not agree smacking is a criminal offence.
Helen Clark points out the law passed by 113 votes to eight - a huge parliamentary consensus.
And she says the law is working overwhelmingly as it was
intended.
Clark says violence in the home is the start of violence in the
community.
The legislation was passed in 2007 and has prompted a referendum next year after more than 300,000 people signed a petition launched by Kiwi party leader Larry Baldock.
The law repealed section 59 of the Crimes Act, which gave
parents a defence of "reasonable force" when disciplining a child.
Under the changes parents can only use reasonable force to prevent
children harming themselves or someone else, or to stop them from
being disruptive or committing a criminal offence.
A survey released in May by the group Family First found that a
year on from the new law people are still smacking their
children.
Family First, which opposes the law, commissioned an independent
survey that found almost half of parents (48%) with children under
12 admitted smacking their children since the law change.
Over half of the mothers polled (51%) confessed to continuing their
use of smacking.
A police review of child assault complaints over a six month period
to April showed no prosecutions for smacking.
Green MP Sue Bradford, who promoted the anti-smacking legislation
last year, said the police data should silence the law's
critics.
There were three prosecutions for assault on a child in the period
but none for what could be termed as "smacking".
Deputy Police Commissioner Rob Pope said the lack of smacking
prosecutions means police are using a "common sense approach" and
that the law is appropriate.
