Mission Accomplished

October 17, 2010

The Yes Vote website will no longer be updating New Zealand news.

The Yes Vote website was set up before the 2009 referendum on physical punishment of children. Its purposes were to engage support for New Zealand’s law banning physical punishment of children and to share information about related issues. It is now over a year since the referendum and the Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Act 2007 remains intact.

A Private Members aimed at overturning the 2007 law by reintroducing a statutory defence into the Crimes Act 1961 was soundly defeated recently in Parliament.

Police monitoring of the implementation of the 2007 law indicates that the law is being implemented sensitively and sensibly and that there has been no increase in prosecutions of parents for minor and occasional smacking of children. For more information, see the Seventh Review of Police Activity Enactment of the Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Act 2007.

The Yes Vote website is an excellent source of information about ending physical punishment of children and the law in New Zealand. It will be kept live as a reference source.

The website www.epochnz.org.nz will continue to publish relevant news from New Zealand.

Thank you again to our supporters!

The Yes Vote Team