Goodhew Jo: Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Goodhew Jo: Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:637;Page:8012] 
JO GOODHEW (National—Aoraki) 
: 
 I rise to take a short call in this debate on the commencement date of the Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Bill. New Zealanders will not be ready for this bill no matter what the commencement date is. Many of my constituents have contacted me—as have hundreds of other New Zealanders—to tell me that they are not ready now and that they will never be ready. 
But what are they ready for? You know the proponents of this bill do know what New Zealanders are ready for. They are ready for an end to child abuse. They are ready for a strong message to go out there that child abuse is not OK. They are ready for that but that does not mean that the commencement of this bill will bring it. 
 Repeal of the element of section 59 that we have heard others in this Chamber speak of—the element that allows the defence of reasonable force in the circumstances that allows a defence for a child who is hit with a horsewhip a four-by-two or a hosepipe—needs work. It needs to disappear. That is fine. But this bill does so much more than remove that defence. So that problem should be sorted but commencing this particular bill will not only sort that problem but also create unintended consequences for the non-abusers. 
I too was tempted to read out some of the emails that have come to me. They have been fascinating over the weeks that have preceded the debate on this bill but I am not going to read them out tonight. I will simply give members the way I see it. 
New Zealanders are not ready for interference in their family life. They are not ready for the confusion they tell me they still feel as to what this bill means about their right to discipline their children. I am not talking about just smacking. This is more than an anti-smacking debate. This is a debate that creates confusion when it comes to the discipline of children that might require one to reasonably remove them through force to pick them up and take them out of the room because their actions are simply unacceptable and one wants to correct them. 
The police are not ready for the responsibility of investigating the many complaints and having to use discretion. I read here from a column written by the president of the Police Association Greg O’Connor who states: “The Commissioner except behind closed doors cannot become involved for fear of being seen to be influencing the parliamentary debate. This is despite the fact that those in favour of the repeal of section 59 are very reliant on the belief that police will use discretion in deciding to prosecute.” That is a huge responsibility on the police—not on the judges and juries but on the police the enforcers. “Does any frontline officer believe that he or she despite being confronted with evidence from a complainant a witness and often corroborated by an admission will be permitted to do other than prosecute under current policy?”. We know now that the police are bringing together guidelines on how they will deal with this—an unenviable task for them. 
Schools are probably not ready for the commencement of this bill either. Schools are unsure how it will affect some of their discipline policies and I have spoken to principals on this matter. 
New Zealand is ready for an end to child abuse. The commencement of this bill will send a message but it will not end child abuse. My colleague Phil Heatley suggested that this bill would catch the majority when we are wanting to deal with a minority. Commencement of this bill will not deal with that minority either.