New Children’s Commissioner John Angus supports the Child Discipline Law

June 10, 2009

New Children’s Commissioner John Angus backs the current Child Discipline Law in today’s Herald saying:

I think the law as it currently stands is satisfactory and is a good piece of law for the children of New Zealand.

Dr Angus said he supported the new law because vulnerable children should get the same legal protection against assault as adults, and because smacking was not usually a consistent or effective form of discipline.

Significantly, Paula Bennett chimes in:

The Government’s position on this legislation is clear – that should good parents be convicted for a light smack, we would look at changing the law, but so far we have seen no evidence that the law is not working.

We wouldn’t want you to consider this information out of context – we encourage you to read the whole article.