Wagner Nicky: Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Wagner Nicky: Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:639;Page:9301] 
NICKY WAGNER (National) 
: 
 I rise to speak on the Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Bill again. As a member of the Justice and Electoral Committee that worked on this bill I have been deeply involved since day one. I reviewed the 1700 submissions and listened to over 300 oral submissions. I have talked to dozens of people. I have been absolutely snowed under by hundreds—no possibly thousands—of emails. As Katherine Rich has noted section 59 has had New Zealanders discussing debating and often disagreeing shrilly for months. That is the one good thing about this bill: it has focused New Zealand on its appalling record of child abuse. 
Despite the bitterness of the debate at times it has also united New Zealanders in the positive things that they do believe about child rearing. In the submissions we saw that submitters actually agreed on many many things. The first thing that all submitters commented on was the frightening tendency for family violence in New Zealand and their disgust for child abuse. All submitters who took the time to present their message—regardless of their opinion on the bill—did so because they were concerned about the welfare of children. The vast majority commented on the importance of parenting and said that it was probably the most difficult job that any of us have ever done in our lives. The majority of submitters understood that there were many creative and interesting techniques used to bring up kids and that parents were always keen to learn new ways to parent—we just need to look at the number of “super-nanny” programmes on the telly to vouch for that. 
The only thing submitters had trouble agreeing on was the role of the smack. Either smacking was OK or smacking was not OK but even those who thought that smacking was not OK mostly did not want to criminalise or convict good parents for giving a light smack. So that tells me that most New Zealanders—although they are diverse in their values over how to bring up children—are thoughtful conscientious and concerned about their kids. It also tells me that most parents are more than capable of making good decisions about rearing their children without the Government being involved. Managing training disciplining and bringing up our kids is an intensely personal experience and decisions about these matters should be family business. 
That is why Parliament has had so many problems when trying to write this legislation. To me it is such a shame that so much parliamentary time energy and resources have been wasted on this bill when we could have addressed the real causes of child abuse and focused on stopping the kind of treatment meted out to those Lillybings James Whakarurus and Coral Burrows. 
However the biggest concern I had with this bill has always been the interference into the lives of good parents and the dangers of criminalising families who occasionally use a smack. Now that John Key has been able to facilitate the introduction of the amendment that will accept that ordinary good parents may occasionally smack their kids without being charged as criminals the bill actually manages to bridge the main area of disagreement between submitters. National and John Key were very aware that unless we did something the bill had the numbers to pass in its original form. We were deeply troubled that politicians were abdicating their responsibility to provide clear messages to the New Zealand Police who are charged with enforcing the law. 
 The amendment does that. It is not perfect but it is the best we could do. Now finally after all the argument the bill can do what most New Zealanders desire. The bill will send a strong message that the present level of violence against children in our society is unacceptable. It will also prevent good parents from being prosecuted for carrying out their normal parenting duties. 
I congratulate John Key on finding a circuit-breaker. Good parents will appreciate this solution. As everyone has heard in the House tonight the bill will not stop child abuse. Hopefully all the focus on the issue will be positive for our children. We have certainly heard how much New Zealanders abhor the high levels of child abuse we have in this country. The bill is much better because of John Key’s and National’s faith in New Zealand parents and because of our advocacy for them. Thank you. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: The next call will be a split call for the Labour Party—5 minutes each. There will be a bell at 4 minutes.