Sio Su'a William: Crimes (Reasonable Parental Control and Correction) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Sio Su'a William: Crimes (Reasonable Parental Control and Correction) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:666;Page:13828] 
SU’A WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Mangere) 
: 
 Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker Barker for the opportunity to speak on the Crimes (Reasonable Parental Control and Correction) Amendment Bill. I believe that most of the significant arguments for why this bill should not proceed have already been articulated by my senior colleagues so I am happy just to share some experiences. The first experience is from this morning when the Social Services Committee visited a local organisation down the road from here. It was an organisation that deals with young men predominantly who have suffered in their lives from their homes. We sat there and listened to the presentation from those young men about how many of them were abused violently sexually by people who supposedly loved them. If members had heard the experiences of those young people then I believe that all of us would be united in saying to the ACT Party that what it is attempting to do tonight is not OK. 
I am reminded that when I was a young man my father said to me constantly: “E fafaga le fanau a manu i fua ma lau o laau ae fafaga le fanau a tagata i upu.” That means that the children of birds are fed with fruits and the leaves of trees but the children of men are fed with words. They are words of patience they are words of love and they are words of example. If we as parents have to resort to force whether it be reasonable or whatever the force is that this bill is attempting to define then we have failed in providing words of encouragement words of support words of love and words of faith to our young people. 
To further illustrate my point once upon a time I bought a mandarin tree and because I am quite busy I just dug a hole and put it next to my driveway. I did not take any notice of that mandarin tree and it grew crooked. My car ran into the leaves as it grew and finally one part of that mandarin tree was dead. I had to cut that particular part. But I was too late when I was trying to remove the dead part of that tree and it eventually affected the whole tree. The point I am making is that if we do not feed our children with words of support words of love words of encouragement and words of faith then it will be too late and irrespective of whether we cut their hand or whip it or use reasonable force as determined by that small party there I would say we have wasted our time. 
The community as a whole has moved on. I constantly hear on the rugby field any time somebody attempts to be violent whether with words or facial features that there is always somebody out on the field saying that it is not OK. I think we have created a culture where we respect our young people. We are respecting the fact that these young children will become future leaders of our society of our family of our community and indeed of this country. If we now resort to the old ways then I have to say there is no place for this bill no place for the kind of rhetoric that is coming from that particular party and I again repeat that it is not OK; it is not OK. Thank you for this opportunity.