New Zealand is in uproar. This country still has historical links with the United Kingdom, where corporal punishment to children and students were officially tolerated for a long time. Many parents see a slap or even a spanking as an essential part of strict upbringing. After all, what was good enough for the parents is good enough for the children. Without this 'weapon' they feel powerless. Perhaps they are right and a correcting smack on the bottom could be beneficial without harming the delicate mind of the child.

But in New Zealand another element comes into it. Regarding child abuse New Zealand is at the top end in the world ranking of developed countries, not just the number of cases but also the seriousness of those. According to a recent report of UNICEF no other developed country has as many children who are unsafe as New Zealand has.
Unfortunately maltreatment and sexual abuse, child murder and even suicidal children are the order of the day, and not just Maoris and immigrated Pacific Islanders. Also the descendants of the old pioneers' children are not always safe.
This proposal is meant to be a guide to tackle maltreating parents and family members. Thus maltreating parents can already be tackled at an early stage and they can't refer to the elastic 'reasonable force'-formula.
The opponents cannot just reject the bill. But they could undermine it that much that nothing of this bill will be left. That is exactly what they are doing. Their exceptions on the rule mean that the 'reasonable force' of the old legislation will be defined more accurate. As long as you cannot express the slaps in number of kilos on the cm², much elasticity remains in the law and becomes an empty letter. No exceptions, say the submitters. All violence against children will be prohibited.
The votes are divided equally, more or less. 'The Press' placed a comment of the editor that strongly pleaded in favour of that law, whereas an authoritative columnist strongly pleaded against the proposal.
Since Labour forms a minority with the Greens they still need the votes of small parties. A pleasant symbolic detail is that the Maori party with their four votes, probably will have the decisive votes. And fortunately it seems that they want to tackle violence against children and will vote in favour of the bill. Then it will not be long before the first offenders will be brought to Court.

That will be a blazing row!

The Dutch version of this article is published in the May/June 2007 edition of Holland Focus.
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