Carter John: Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Carter John: Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:637;Page:8020] 
JOHN CARTER (National—Northland) 
: 
 I want to talk on clause 2 the commencement clause and I want to make this point right at the very beginning: although it is true that this bill is in the name of Sue Bradford let us make no mistake that the reason it will go into law on its third reading is that Helen Clark the leader of the Labour Government has forced it through this Parliament. Helen Clark is the person who is responsible for this legislation. She will be the person who makes this bill commence on the day it does because she has driven her caucus. Helen Clark the leader of the Labour Party will be responsible for making good New Zealand parents criminals. Let us just get that clear on the record. 
 I want to support the very good amendment put in by my colleague Chester Borrows. It is one of the most sensible things that we will debate in this House for some time and he is to be congratulated on it. I also want to congratulate Colin King on the amendment that he has put forward. 
I also want to refer members to a further amendment that has been put forward by my colleague Maurice Williamson. It reads: “… and all 121 existing members of this House have signed a Statutory Declaration that they personally support the vote that was cast in their name in the passing of this Act.” The reason for that amendment is that we want to know that everyone is accountable. We want to know that Helen Clark has not driven some of her party members to vote for this bill. We want to know that they are able to stand up and speak for themselves. Are they doing that or are they driven by Helen Clark and her Labour Government? I say they are being driven by Helen Clark. 
Let me make it clear that this bill tonight will not stop one child being abused in this country. This legislation will not stop any kid from being killed or whipped or thrashed by a four-by-two or a pipe. The parents of those children do not even know where Parliament is. They do not care a squat about what laws we pass. They could not give a stuff about what we do here tonight. They will carry on abusing beating and manipulating their children in the way they do and if anyone thinks this is going to help those kids one diddly-squat that person is deluding himself or herself. 
There is another thing that worries me with this bill. A 13 or 14-year-old child—boy or girl—brought up in a good home may say one night: “I am going out to a party Mum and Dad.” The mum and dad are going to say: “No you are not.” “Yes I am” says the child “I am going to go; I don’t care what you say.” “No you’re not” say the mum and dad—and what will happen? The kid will ring up the police and say: “My parents are abusing me.” All of a sudden the cops will come around and the parents will be under scrutiny. They will have to go through the whole trauma of being investigated by the police because of this legislation. 
Good parents will be persecuted by this legislation. What will be worse is that the dad will stand there and say: “Yes I wanted to discipline my child.” He will be told: “Off you go you can’t live here with your kid.” Mum is going to stand there and say: “Hang on a minute I’m backing Dad.” She will be told: “You can’t go or we’re going to take the kids and put them in with Child Youth and Family.” The children will probably end up being put in with Black Power or somewhere where they will really get abused while the parents are trying to sort out with the police the fact that they have not abused their children that they are good parents and that they should not be under the scope of this bill. 
I say tonight that the people in the Labour Government—Helen Clark particularly—who are driving this bill are absolutely doing this country the biggest disservice. It is of course part of the Government’s social engineering it is part of its social manipulation and it is part of what Helen Clark believes. Absolutely! It is the nanny State saying to good parents: “Don’t worry about it. We’ll look after you.” Nanny State and “Nanny Helen Clark” will go about telling good parents how to operate. It is not good enough and the people of this country know it. They will finally have their say soon enough and when that happens there will be a change of Government because those people know what is good for their children.