Video: John Key’s press conference on the Child Discipline Law
August 24, 2009
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Key points:
- Parents will not be criminalised for lightly smacking their children
- Police and MSD Chief Execs will lead a review of policies to identify any changes necessary or desirable to ensure that good parents are treated as parliament intended, to report back by 1 December 2009.
- The official review of the Child Discipline Law will be moved forward to late September or early October
- Police will continue to report on the law for the next three years, and specifically include data on where the parents believed that the force used was reasonable in the circumstances. If parents are truly being criminalised for lightly smacking their children, Parliament will have to look at changing the law.