Thursday, 3 May 2007

2 May 2007 - Close up

Wednesday May 2
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/497100/1094113
Related Video
Close Up: Smacking compromise (15:23)
Close Up: Smacking feedback (01:08)
Click on link above to see these two sections of Close up

People Power or Political Brinkmanship?
After feeling the blow torch of public opinion a compromise appears to have been found over Sue Bradford's private member's bill to repeal Section 59 - known as the anti-smacking bill. The reaction around the country has been fierce. Even those who supported the intent were angry at the possibility parents would become criminals even for lightly smacking their children. Whether or not that was likely was clearly becoming a political problem. Our show last night drew around 600 emails and thousands of responses to our online questionnaire. But today National leader John Key joined forces with Prime Minister Helen Clark to announce an amendment to the bill, that should see it passed with the support of all parties.

The amendment reads: "To avoid doubt it is affirmed that police have the discretion not to prosecute complaints against a parent of a child, or person in the place of a parent of a child, in relation to an offence involving the use of force against a child where the offence is considered to be so inconsequential that there is no public interest in proceeding with a prosecution."

Today Corinne Ambler hit the streets of Wellington to talk to the masses. Then in the studio Mark Sainsbury talked to PM Helen Clark, National leader John Key, Green MP Sue Bradford and father of four Simon Barnett.

Smacking Feedback
Last night we received more than 600 emails about the smacking issue, more than 90 percent of which were against Sue Bradford's bill. You can read some of those by clicking http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/488124/1093173 and more than 5700 also participated in our survey conducted by Buzz that you can contribute to HERE http://www.buzzchannel.co.nz/v2.1/surveys/closeup/start.asp?s=2980&c=89

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