March 2005
British legislation: NOT the way for New Zealand to go
The Children Act 2004 covers England and Wales and contains a section related to physical punishment. Sadly, it fails to set a non-violent standard in law and sends a "carry on smacking" message to parents. It removes the reasonable punishment/ chastisement defence in relation to the serious assault charges of wounding, actual and grievous bodily harm and ill-treatment of children, leaving the defence available for charges of common assault. Courts these days would not accept use of the defence for assaults causing significant injury, so the Act represents little change. Here is the relevant text:Children Act 2004; 58 reasonable punishment
(1) In relation to any offence specified in subsection (2), battery of a child cannot be justified on the ground that it constituted reasonable punishment.
(2) The offences referred to in subsection (1) are:
(3) (a) an offence under section 18 or 20 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861 (c 100) (wounding and causing grievous bodily harm);
(b) an offence under section 47 of that Act (assault occasioning actual bodily harm);
(c) an offence under section 1 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 (c 12) (cruelty to persons under 16).
(3) Battery of a child causing actual bodily harm to the child cannot be justified in any civil proceedings on the ground that it constituted reasonable punishment.
(4) For the purposes of subsection (3) "actual bodily harm" has the same meaning as it has for the purposes of section 47 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861.
(5) In section 1 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933, omit subsection (7).
Commencement
According to section 67(f), "section 58 comes into force at the end of the period of two months beginning with the day on which this Act is passed". The Act was passed on 15 November 2004, so section 58 will come into force on 15 January 2005.
This is not the way we want to go in New Zealand. If the present Government is re‑elected in 2005 and keeps its promise to review section 59 of the Crimes Act 1961, we must advocate strongly against an amendment such as this.