June 28, 2009
Media release: Students Against Violence June 28, 2009
It has interested me to watch the debate heat up once more over the last few weeks, once again the so called ‘anti-smacking law’ was headlining the newspapers.
The attention moved from the law itself to the referendum and the question itself. It is interesting to see that the New Zealand public haven’t been fooled by the question and are simply going to ignore it, perhaps in the shadow of our countries political party leaders John Key and Phil Goff.
New Zealanders appears to be questioning the credibility of the ‘No Vote’ campaigners amidst the controversy of Christine Rankin and the ambiguous wording of the question, which has now backfired on the instigators of the referendum.
It amazes me how desperate the ‘no vote’ campaign has come. Their claims of ‘parents being criminalised’ are seriously miss-leading and it makes my stomach turn to think of the children in these situations.
The stories are all about parents who have been made out to be good, loving and caring. What disgusts me is the absolute belief from these campaigners that the cases all represent good parental discipline!
Not only that, I also notice stories, which supposedly headlining their campaign, now having been removed from the No Vote website. They are now very difficult to find. Consequently, I believe the public have realised these stories have no credibility and that the parents were never criminalised for them.
The past few weeks have seen the opposition get weaker and weaker from Larry Baldock getting absolutely toasted in an interview by Sean Plunket, to John Key and Phil Goff declaring they aren’t interested in the referendum and the general public supporting the child discipline law.
Let’s face it, if this law wasn’t working parents would know about it. Good parents would be getting thrown behind bars and our friends and whanau would be living in complete fear.
Christine Rankin’s pathetic fear tactics haven’t fooled many and have simply caused more controversy about her position as a families commissioner rather than the actual content of the article.
I strongly believe it’s time the opposition threw in the towel and just gave up. Every day New Zealanders have adapted to our zero tolerance of violence in the home and our leaders are all indicating there won’t be a change in the law. The question means that the answer you give can never clearly represent your views on the issue and will have no direct impact on the government’s decision to keep the law in its current form.
- Johny O’Donnell, youth advocate for the Child Discipline Law, chairperson Students Against Violence
June 17, 2009
It’s time to share some love. Over the last few days, we’ve had lots of coverage from a variety of blogs, and we’d like to give you the opportunity to see what others are saying. We’d like you consider supporting our friends who support us, by visiting their blogs occasionally and joining in the conversation.
The Hand Mirror has supported us from the start, most recently pointing out how confused John Boscawen is over the whole issue. They were the first to run our skyscraper.
No Right Turn has mentioned us several times, and runs our lovely banners too.
The Standard has run several items, most lately “Child beating lobby finished“, and also runs our skyscraper.
g.blog’s published “That ridiculous referendum” yesterday and continues to give us good and broad coverage; they also run our skyscrapers.
Still Truckin had a story today called “And it’s all wasted time” and also runs our skyscraper.
TechTime summarised what we’re about and also runs our banner.
Ideologically Impure says “The question is stupid and its writers should feel stupid“.
Red Headed Devil child runs our skyscrapers.
If you think Christians are on the wrong side of this debate, think again. Christian Social Services (the folks who have to deal with the consequences of bad behaviour) are right behind us. Other brave religious souls have also spoken out.
Pork ‘n Puha run our banner.
Public Address have run a couple of great stories which have generated heaps of discussion and traffic.
Chris Nimmo not only runs the YES in ’09 Facebook Group, he also runs our banner.
TruthseekerNZ is unequivocal about his position.
Andrew McMillan discusses Childrens’ Rights in New Zealand.
Thank you so much for your support! We’re sorry if we missed anyone, do let us know and we’ll mention you in the next round.
Tags: andrew mcmillan ,chris nimmo ,christian social services ,g.blog ,ideologically impure ,john boscawen ,no right turn ,pork n puha ,red headed devil child ,still truckin ,support ,techtime ,the hand mirror ,the standard ,truthseekernz
May 24, 2009
There is steady flow of incoming messages here at The Yes Vote headquarters. We are stoked by the support, mainly by people working at the coal face – Early Childhood Educators and people who work dealing with the consequences of family violence. We’re also bemused by messages from some members of the lobby of people wanting to regain their right to hit their kids in the guise of correcting their behaviour. We respect these people’s right to an alternative view, but reject the anger and misguided disregard for New Zealand’s awful record of child abuse and murder. Thankfully the love-to-hate ratio is very high, which reinforces our basic faith in humanity, and that the power of love and nurturing is much greater than the power of hate and violence.
Here is a sample of some of the messages:
I believe no person should be able to physically abuse a child, a smack of any type is not okay. Child abuse in NZ is appalling, our children have rights and should be treated with respect. Violence breeds violence.
I strongly support the no smacking legislation and as a third year early childhood teaching student I will strongly enforce the ideals in my teaching practice.
We value the rights of each child to live free from all forms of violence.
I have always supported the deletion of Section 59 from the Crimes Act so that it cannot be used as a defence of “reasonable force” after using violence against a child. Assaulting an adult is not allowed by law, so why should it be legal to assault a small defenceless child? There are better ways of bringing up a child to be a peaceful and responsible citizen than hitting it.
We fully support existing legislation and believe that the Police are using thier discretion regarding the law appropriately. We believe that the law is helping to change behaviour about hwat is acceptable child rearing pracitce in terms of the use of physical violence.
We support the new law, and totally support the principle that every child has the right to be safe from violence. To return to the pre-2007 law would be a step backwards for New Zealand.
Thank you for your support, it means a lot to us!
