King Colin: Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
King Colin: Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:637;Page:8019] 
COLIN KING (National—Kaikoura) 
: 
 I am grateful for the opportunity to take a call on clause 2. I have a handwritten amendment in my name primarily because I believe there needs to be an education programme around the wider implications of this bill. Just looking at the editorial in my local paper today which said people should support the anti-smacking bill I saw that it made the comment—which is quite relevant if we think about it—that a law change in itself will not accomplish everything that is required. It will not change attitudes but it may give parents a very good opportunity to think before they lash out. So on that basis I recommend that we have a considerable delay so that we in Parliament here do not believe that by just making a considerable change to section 59 of the Crimes Act we are able to walk away and say we have done our bit. 
When it comes to the education programme we also recognise that the police are currently looking at issuing guidelines as to how they will administer the altered section 59 of the Act. I also recommend that it would be appropriate to have an education programme around Child Youth and Family because that agency in fact will become the front-line police in terms of this legislation. Child Youth and Family staff will be the ones to have to act; they will be the ones who confront parents alleged to have smacked or abused their children. 
It is very important that parents listen to the voice of this Parliament and especially to the member who is the proponent of this bill the Green member when she says that democracy is at work in this Parliament. It is clearly evident by the entrenched nature of the members across on the Government benches in this Parliament that they are indeed being whipped. We know in fact that if they were able to vote according to where their consciences sit they would be voting according to the way their consciences lead them just as I intend to do. I will support Chester Borrows’ amendments; I see them as being a very intelligent forward-thinking way to proceed. When it comes to Judy Turner’s recommendations about having a greater process around the input of the public I certainly see a great deal of merit in that and I have always seen Judy Turner as being somebody who acts very sensibly and who always thinks first about what is best for society. 
On that basis my reference to the timing of the implementation of this bill is that it needs to be pushed well out in front of us to 2009 not only to enable the alteration of section 59 but to allow us to do more. We can completely wipe out that insidious aspect of violence and abuse exhibited in our society instead of just feeling that by altering section 59 in a slight knee-jerk reaction as parliamentarians we can wash our hands of any responsibility for child abuse. 
Interestingly when I was looking at the title of the bill and the time when it should be implemented I went to the Parliamentary Library and got some information on what we were actually looking at. The most recent information we could get from the Parliamentary Library effectively around section 59 of the Crimes Act was that only 15 cases could be located. Out of those there were four cases in which section 59 was used as a successful defence and ten cases in which it was used unsuccessfully. In one case nobody could tell who the winner was. 
So I believe that with everything considered and given the very wise manner in which the matter has been canvassed by members on the Opposition side of the Chamber it would be very appropriate to engage in a full and comprehensive education programme so that we do not let off the hook the parliamentarians who are forcing this change through contrary to the intentions of the greater public. I will be supporting the amendments that Chester Borrows has put forward as I see those to be the only sensible and logical way forward for the betterment of society. Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker.