Copeland Gordon: Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Copeland Gordon: Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:637;Page:7998] 
GORDON COPELAND (United Future) 
: 
 I will make just two simple points in relation to the title of this bill. The first one is that the title reads that this is the “Crimes”—I will leave out the bit in brackets—“Amendment Bill”. It is vitally important at the beginning of this debate tonight to remind the Committee that this legislation is an amendment to the Crimes Act. We are not here writing a good parenting manual. Therefore I support the reference in the title to the Crimes Act. 
It is vitally important that we understand that in this legislation we are changing the criminal law of New Zealand. We are changing the criminal law of New Zealand to bring into the orbit of assault under the Crimes Act for the first time actions such as light smacking and taking children to time out. Those are the things we are changing about the criminal law in New Zealand. That is very important because if we forget we are amending the Crimes Act we can forget that that Act involves the police and very serious penalties for people who break the law under that Act. This is not the Summary Offences Act this is not the “Do-Gooders Act” and this is not the “Let Us Send a Message to Violent Families Act”; this is the Crimes Act. This is not about sending some sort of hypothetical message to some hypothetical recipient; it is about crime—crime in New Zealand. That is my first point. 
The second point is that I think the Justice and Electoral Committee has erred gravely in dropping the original name of this bill and I am surprised that the member in charge Sue Bradford has actually allowed the committee to do that. The original name of the bill was the Crimes (Abolition of Force as a Justification for Child Discipline) Amendment Bill. If we look at the purpose clause which we will discuss separately we see that the bill’s purpose is the abolition of the use of parental force for the purpose of correction. So in my opinion the more accurate title would be the “Crimes (Abolition of the Use of Parental Force for the Purpose of Correction) Amendment Bill”. That title would be consistent with the purpose of the bill. To say that the bill is just a substitution of section 59 of the Crimes Act is most unhelpful. It does not tell anybody what the heck this bill is about. 
I have received emails today and one said: “I want to draw your attention Mr Copeland to section 58.” I have not read section 58 incidentally but a lot of people are just using the section as some sort of code and we assume that people automatically in some magical way will know that section 59 means a section of the Crimes Act. It means that we are establishing new criminal offences for the first time in New Zealand’s history through this bill tonight and that those criminal offences for the first time in relation to parental force are for the purpose of correction. That point should therefore come through in the name of the bill. Otherwise we will start the debate on the wrong foot. My main purpose now though is to remind all members in their speeches tonight to recognise and appreciate that through this bill we are changing the criminal law of New Zealand.