Ten out of ten to Simon Power

Ten out of ten to Simon Power, National Justice Spokesperson who is a 'non-smacking' dad and understands how powerful adults are in the eyes of children and how frightening it can be to have a big adult you trust and rely on loom over you in a threatening way and in a place where you think you are safe - your family. While national party members will be able to examine their consciences on this issue when the repeal of Section 59 comes before the House, we know that at least one National MP understands that this is a bad piece of law and recognises that the family pet has greater protection than our children. It is curious that on the issue of children's rights and adult responsibility, however, that so many MPs seem to want to fudge the key issues and to wonder whether or not some exceptions should be granted to adults - to use particular sorts of physical techniques or to be able to reserve the right to assault children of particular ages. Has anyone come up with a convincing explanation about why parents should have greater protection than already provided by the assault laws when it comes to raising their children? Certainly there is no research that illustrates any benefit in terms of better outcomes for children. What Section 59 allows is the assault of children, not the careful, controlled smacking in a non-abusive, non-angry, teaching kind of way. It would be useful to find research that documents how often parents actually smack their children in a calm and controlled manner with no anger or frustration - as this is what proponents of 'repeal with limitations' or retention of the status quo worry will be lost by repeal. And it would be useful to know how much time these parents actually spend in thinking about different ways to teach their children how to relate to others in democratic and non-abusive ways. This debate is timely as we again face the horrific consequences of abuse and harm to children. When politicians worry that they can do so little of practical use to stem family violence, and are trying to hard to work together on this issue but are not sure how much impact they can really have on what happens within the privacy of the home, voting for a full repeal is one very clear contribution that they can make to improving the chances that children and young people of the future will be able to live in less violent families and communities than the children and young people of today.