Dean Jacqui: Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Dean Jacqui: Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:637;Page:8027] 
JACQUI DEAN (National—Otago) 
: 
 I rise to speak to the commencement date of this bill the Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Bill. The first comment I would make about this bill is that the public of New Zealand are not stupid. The public of New Zealand know exactly what this bill is about. The public of New Zealand do not want to see this bill commence. The public of New Zealand do not want this bill to commence because they understand very very clearly that this is a bill in which the Government comes in their back door into their kitchen into their family room into their bedroom and tells them how they may or how they may not raise their children. 
I have the great pleasure of being a constituency MP and as part of my duties as a constituency MP I receive a number of people in my office. I was particularly struck by a man who came in to see me. He made an appointment and took some time off work and I hope he is listening this evening. He took a morning off work so that he could come in and see me and express his dismay at the provisions of this anti-smacking bill including the commencement date which of course is integral to the bill. He said: “You know Jacqui it’s my job to raise my children. It’s not the Government’s job to raise my children.” Those members over on the other side of the Chamber—the unionists—are scoffing but this is a man’s heartfelt belief. If members can scoff against that then I guess they can scoff against anything. 
I spoke to a lawyer this morning on the telephone because I was interested to see how in fact this bill would pan out should the commencement date come into force and the bill be turned into law. That lawyer who has done quite a bit of family work ran me through the scenario of what would happen out in the real world should this unfortunate and vile bill ever become law. What would happen is that if a complaint was made to the police about a parent or caregiver smacking a child it would be regarded by the police as the same as a domestic violence incident. Under police current practice should this happen in Oamaru the police would go along to that Oamaru home knock on the door and arrest the person. The person—and remember we are talking about a parent here—would be taken to the police station and held in custody. That parent would be removed from his or her child and taken into custody. That person—that citizen of New Zealand who is now being regarded as a criminal—would be put before a judge or a justice of the peace in order for bail to be discussed because in this instance of family violence so-called the police would not be considering that. 
So here we have a situation where if this bill should ever become law—which I certainly hope it does not; I do not want to see this bill ever commence—a person who taps his or her kid on the bottom is going to spend quite a bit of time in police custody and in police cells. If the politicians on the other side of the Chamber who live in la-la land want to argue that then they should go and speak to a lawyer in their own community. Do we want this for our society? Do we want this for our children? Do we want this for our parents? I would say we do not. 
So let us have a look at another scenario because I got a little bit interested at this point. It is all very well talking about principles but what actually happens out in the world? Well here we have a situation where a couple separates. There is an awful lot of bitterness going around when couples separate and divorce and when there are children involved. OK Dad’s feeling very bitter about Mum who has found herself a new partner. He picks the kids up and one of the kids is a bit angry with Mum because Mum has sent them off to their room to do their homework or something. So the kid says—because the kid knows that he or she can—“Mum hit me.” Well members can guess what will happen then. The cops will have to go around and once again our good decent parents will be regarded as criminals.