Smacking Referendum
The Republic of New Zealand Party announced its position on
section 59 today, with a statement from party leader Kerry
Bevin.
Mr Bevin said the party could not support the repeal of
section 59 when there was such overwhelming public
opposition.
Clearly the Government is flying in the face of public
opinion and if it feels otherwise the matter should be
settled with a Smacking Referendum.
He went on to say commonsense was prevailing and kiwi
parents do wish to retain reasonable force as part of family
discipline. “The smacking debate should be resolved by
simply asking the people and no further time and money needs
to be wasted.”
Republican policy is to introduce Binding National Referenda
(bnr) and binding local initiatives (bli) when issues like
smacking and rates rises are debated. The Republic of NZ
Party would make important issues like these binding at a
threshold of 75 percent. In these instances this means
smacking would remain legal and rates rises would be
restricted.
This is direct democracy and provides government the way it
should be.
Discipline in the family is essential to discipline in society. It is the foundation, not only of victory, but also of success, and esteem.
Said by Bevan Berg April 17, 2007 at about 10:57 pm