Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Summer Wine]

Some of the recent political decesions seem to be getting a little strange and confusing.

One example is this http://xtramsn.co.nz/news/0,,11981-6589695,00.html

the other is the discussion about whether police should be able to keep the assets of criminals.

Is it just me or has NZ run out of logical things to make political decesions about and the Government is needing to make decesions on just about everything to justify its continued existence.

When you consider the technology today that allows us to centralise our communications, who else thinks that we are top heavy in the number of actual chiefs and underresourced in the indians. Our population doesn't need the number of local and national politicians that we have.

I also wonder if our Governments laws and changes would be better served by just educating NZers and less on creating legal eforcements.

[crazylemongirl]

Actually I support this decision. New Zealand has the highest rates of non-accdential child deaths in the OECD and there has been numerous cases where people have got off abusing their kids on the current legal defence. Many northern european countries ahve had a similar law on their books for almost 30 years and the sky hasn't fallen in.

[Summer Wine]

I do have a couple of questions about it.

Who is going to enforce it?

Are teachers expected to ask kids each morning, where you spanked? and teach kids to inform on their parents.

Oh mistake, one more question. What will constitute violence and how does a child know the difference between I am angry with you, so I will tell my teacher you hit me and you did a beating on me because you were stoned.

[crazylemongirl]

simple the police will enforce the law just as they do every other law in NA

The only time that force can be used is in restraining a child to prevent it from harm, or from causing others harm, or to prevent it engaging in disruptive behaviour. It does not give parents open licence, for example, to beat a child with a metal pipe which the current law does. What it does is lower the prosecution bar for the police to take complaints to court, which is a good thing given the number of high profile acquitals there has been in the current law.

And yes, I do think that there should be avenues for reporting parental abuse should be in place in schools. It's about promoting a culture in New Zealand that says, no it isn't acceptable to abuse your kids. You need to find another way to discpline them. There have been far too many cases of child abuse in NZ and we need to stop tolerating it as being ok.

[rawiri]

Sue Bradford's a nutcase, always has been.

[Summer Wine]

edit.

Laws against physical abuse exist already. This seems to ban any spanking, and will the police have the resources to police this.

Will the Family Court remove children from parents if they are found to have spanked a child even if there was no bruishing or actual long term physical damage other than 2 minutes of pain on your arse.

It just seems there is a ton of questions to be asked and a ton of situations that need to be considered. I am not saying that I disagree with the theory, but the practice of enforcement and what it all means interests me.

[Satori]

That is f*cking ridiculous. There's nothing wrong with smacking a child on the bum with an open hand in a controlled way as a form of discipline. NZ has been highjacked by treehuggers and is set to go down the tubes...disgraceful

[Chicoloco]

NZ has gone too far down the road to being a nanny state. Next they will be demanding people fence off swimming pools on private property.... Oh wait.......!

[the ape]

Im with Crazylemongirl

While I agree that a smack on the ass is acceptable punishment now and again, I will never smack my kids. And even if it is technically possible to procecute for this Im willing to bet the cops would never do it. We need the laws so Babys like kahui don't continue to die. I guess I love Hugging trees.

[crazylemongirl]

This law is about lowering the bar of prosecution. At the moment, police will only prosecute if there has been severe abuse. This lowers the bar significantly and says to parents, you need to think twice before lashing out. It also says to bystanders, you shouldn't be turning a blind eye to stuff like this, report it.

I almost got fired from a supermarket job where a woman was hitting her two year old around the head (granted two year old was doing what two year olds do when they get tired and grumpy) and I stepped in and told her to stop because it was just making the child further agitated and that I would hold her order so that she could subdue her child.

If another customer hadn't said that he was impressed by my actions, I was facing at least a final warning for doing what I did. Was I a busy body? Yes. But I can't help but wonder but if this woman was capable of hurting her child in public like this, what the hell she was doing to it behind closed doors.

As for the nanny state arguements, I would argue that condoning beating of children (which the current legislation does) is something that the state should be taking very seriously. New Zealand has one of the worst rates of death as a result of child abuse. We need to stop just saying 'it's a bit of a smack' and turning a blind eye to this stuff. It's a national disgrace and we should be reporting this so that parents can get help they need to discpline without hitting.

[SHANE02]

I do think NZ has excessive buracracy, and to think with so many suits running aroung you'd think they could SORT OUT THE FUC*IN STADIUM FOR GOD'S SAKE!


BTW: The waterfront "floating cloud" looks cool in the promo.

[gang ah jee]

[SHANE02]

Nandor was the treasurer for NORML in my home town. Those meetings were so funny. I had real pitty for the secretatry trying to take the minutes after we'd all had "cookies" and a cupa.

[Satori]

If you want to target child abuse then go after it with specific legislation. This seems to ban all corporal punishment. It would mean that a 7 year old kid who was a bit clever could go tell someone he got a smack, which could have been a very legitimate punishment, and basically hold the parents to ransom. Then end result of this is kids running homes like they already run schools and a total lack of discipline.

Ive taught in NZ high schools, have any of you? I can tell you that sinse they banned caning they kids are out of control and have no respect. Teachers now have to "seduce" the students into behaving rather than simply demanding it. Its terrible. When you go out into society there are laws and absolute limits, and kids can potentially come out of high school having never heard the word "no" either at home or school.

[gang ah jee]