Smacking Referendum

All the Information You Need

to Vote NO!

.....and NO Copyright. So pass it on.

WEBSITE
The VoteNO.org.nz website has all the information you need regarding the upcoming anti-smacking Referendum including:
frequently asked questions
real life stories of how the anti-smacking law has affected NZ families
quotes of interest
summary of the past 4 years of polls
summary of media releases on this issue
how to enroll
background of the Referendum
even a cartoons page!

POSTERS
There are FREE downloadable posters
(and banner adverts and sidebar adverts for your blogs and website).
The posters come in 2 options – large A2 / A3 option with all the Frequently Asked Questions, and a smaller option which simply encourages people to vote NO

Most importantly..
BROCHURES
There are also FREE downloadable brochures
We especially encourage you to photocopy and distribute the pamphlet which summarises all the key points of the Referendum DOWNLOAD HERE|
The brochures are even in other translations including Tongan, Samoan, Fijian, Chinese, Spanish and Korean!

Download them - photocopy - and distribute to family and friends!
Take them to church, deliver them in your street, hand them out at the local shopping mall or sports event – wherever there’s a crowd!

So GET THE WORD OUT on what this Referendum is all about. There's no copyright - we won't sue you for plagiarism! GO FOR YOUR LIFE!! But especially - encourage people to vote!

We can also make the videos available to show to your group including Simon Barnett, Referendum proposer Sheryl Savill and Maori Child Advocate Bev Adair - simply email us admin@familyfirst.org.nz for the files

There's also a blog, we're on Twitter, and a group of supporters have started a Facebook group

IT'S ALL GO! Vote NO!

You may even like to financially support the VoteNO campaign!!

But at the end of the day, the Referendum is about you having the opportunity to have YOUR say!

Help send a strong message to the politicians that they simply cannot ignore - no matter how much they spend through government funded bodies like the Families Commission and the Human Rights Commission, and government funded agencies like Barnardos and Plunket to try and shut you up!

Bob McCoskrie
VoteNO Campaign

Authorised by Bob McCoskrie for the VoteNO Campaign, 605b Gt South Rd, Manukau City 2241

HOW MUCH IS IT WORTH?

We need your help!

Anti-Smacking Postal Referendum
July 31 - August 21 2009

Send a message that John Key simply can't ignore

In the first three weeks of August, NZ'ers will finally have a chance to have their say on Sue Bradford's anti-smacking law.

Since the Referendum was formally announced, there has been a media EXPLOSION
* Campaign begins for referendum on child discipline - The Electoral Enrollment Centre begins a campaign on Monday to remind voters to check they are enrolled for a referendum on the anti-smacking law
* Vote unlikely to bring law change - The Government is unlikely to change the anti-smacking law regardless of the result of the $9 million referendum, Prime Minister John Key says
* MP's slate smacking poll words - Because they don't like the answer they come to, and the effect of the law they passed!
* Leaders won't vote in smacking poll - Neither Prime Minister John Key nor Labour leader Phil Goff will vote in the smacking referendum
* Big two coy on smacking vote - A national referendum is re-igniting debate on the anti-smacking law two years on
* Latest smacking poll - same result - Family First Media Release 17 June 09
* PM attempting to shut down Referendum debate - Family First Media Release 16 June 09

Now there is the chance to tell the politicians to change the anti-smacking law so that we have laws that acknowledge and value the important role of good parents - but also demand that the real causes of child abuse are targeted.

Family First will be one of the groups speaking up and encouraging NZ'ers to vote NO!
Our plan:
* web-based and media-based
* networking by email
* media interviews
* simply presenting the facts

Our need?
Simple really. We need your financial support.

The 'opposition' has no difficulty with funding.
Groups like Barnardos, Plunket, Parents Centre, Families Commission, Children's Commissioner, and other government-funded organisations are well funded thanks to you - the taxpayer. And they've been busy running seminars, websites, sending out briefing sheets to MP's, publishing newsletters, employing staff especially for this issue, and sending out social workers far and wide pushing their message.

How do they really view kiwi parents?
If you oppose the anti-smacking law as so many NZ'ers do, you're demonised as 'violent', and a parent who supports 'bashing' and 'assaulting' children. These groups should hang their head in shame for labelling kiwi parents in such a way.
* Former Children's Commissioner Ian Hassell referred to opponents to the anti-smacking law as the 'child-beating lobby' LISTEN HERE
* Sue Bradford referred to Family First as the pro-violence lobby
* Barnardos spokeswoman Deborah Morris-Travers said in a Christchurch Press article today "..Our views of children are perhaps a bit more modern and up to date compared to the other side of the debate....."
* but the classic quote of the week also comes from Barnardos when Morris-Travers denied the 300,000+ who signed the petition - and the poll after poll after poll that shows 80%+ opposing the law - and makes this statement about Family First
LISTEN
(By the way, this letter is being sent to you by email and will be posted on our website after I talk to my wife on my mobile!!!!)

WOULD YOU CONSIDER INVESTING IN OUR voteNO CAMPAIGN?

We will not get a single cent from the government in this Referendum - unlike the opposing argument.

Every donation - large and small - will enable us to get the facts out there, and to promote the important role of parents, the welfare of children, and the real issues of child abuse.

Thanks for your consideration. Together, we can bring some sanity to this debate and demand that the real causes of child abuse are confronted.

PREVIOUS NEWSLETTER

In the first three weeks of August, NZ'ers will finally have a chance to have their say on Sue Bradford's anti-smacking law.

It's taken two years, the booting out of the previous government (which many commentators - even within the Labour party - attribute to this law), more than 300,000 signatures, and far too many good families who have been investigated, children disrupted and traumatised, and some parents even prosecuted because of the law.

This law treats a smack on the bottom from a loving parent equal to child abuse of the worst kind, and has put good parents raising law-abiding and responsible kids in the same category as rotten abusive parents.

Green MP Sue Bradford admitted that the law was never intended to solve the problem of child abuse. Only yesterday, the Law Society admitted that the anti-smacking law has made no difference to NZ’s unacceptable rate of child abuse.

Well, I want the problem of child abuse tackled – and I’m sure you do too.

Now there is the chance to tell the politicians to change the anti-smacking law so that we have laws that acknowledge and value the important role of good parents - but also demand that the real causes of child abuse are targeted.

Family First will be one of the groups speaking up and encouraging NZ'ers to vote NO
"Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in NZ."
Even Labour leader Phil Goff says the answer is NO!

Our plan:
* web-based and media-based
* networking by email
* media interviews
* simply presenting the facts

Our need?
Simple really. We need your financial support.

The 'opposition' has no difficulty with funding.
Groups like Barnardos, Plunket, Parents Centre, Families Commission, Children's Commissioner, and other government-funded organisations are well funded thanks to you - the taxpayer, either promoting the YES vote or pushing the anti-smacking law.

And they've been busy running seminars and websites, sending out briefing sheets to MP's, publishing newsletters, employing staff especially for this issue, and sending out social workers far and wide pushing their message.

Only last week, we received an email saying:
"I'm a counsellor working for a parenting community organisation - funded by CYFS etc so the organisation is for the YES vote. I find myself within the network of forwarded emails. Most people take it for granted I'm on the 'same side'. To keep my job - I am unable to make a huge noise about it! - however I am entitled to my personal opinion right! The whole anti- smacking was so ill aimed - and I cannot see (and in my line of work I'm better placed than most) how it has made any difference to those that 'abuse' their children."

A social worker from Barnados told us
“I opposed the anti-smacking bill but my view was not taken into account. I was told to follow the organisation’s view – but there was no discussion. There was no gauging of the views of the workers who are working with these families.”

How do they really view kiwi parents?
If you oppose the anti-smacking law as so many NZ'ers do, you're demonised as 'violent', and a parent who supports 'bashing' and 'assaulting' children. These groups should hang their head in shame for labelling kiwi parents in such a way. Only yesterday in a debate on National Radio, former Children's Commissioner Ian Hassell referred to opponents to the anti-smacking law as the 'child-beating lobby' LISTEN HERE - a disgraceful misrepresentation of the views of a huge majority of parents.

WOULD YOU CONSIDER INVESTING IN OUR voteNO CAMPAIGN?

We will not get a single cent from the government in this Referendum - unlike the opposing argument. Every donation - large and small - will enable us to get the facts out there, and to promote the important role of parents, the welfare of children, and the real issues of child abuse.

Thanks for your consideration. Together, we can bring some sanity to this debate and demand that the real causes of child abuse are confronted.

Kind regards

Bob McCoskrie
National Director

Recent 'Classic Quotes' regarding the
Anti-smacking law and the upcoming Referendum

Phil Goff - Leader Labour Party
Interviewer: Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?
Phil Goff: Well my answer to that is no it shouldn’t be a criminal offence
Q+A’s Paul Holmes interviews Labour's Phil Goff TVNZ Sunday 12 April 2009
Family First Comment: But with respect Mr Goff, you voted for a law that made it a criminal offence. But at least he did answer the question, unlike....

Bill English - Deputy PM
INTERVIEWER: Well, did you think - do you think a smack should be allowed as part of good parental correction?
BILL ENGLISH: Well, look, I think the law, as it is, is the law of the land and needs to be enforced in a sensible way. And...
INTERVIEWER: But do you think a smack should be allowed as part of good parental correction?
BILL ENGLISH: I - I think the law, as it is, is the law of the land that should be enforced. If there is evidence that it is being enforced in instances where it's - where it's inappropriate because the event is trivial or [indistinct]...
INTERVIEWER: No, no. Sorry, Minister, I just wanted to know whether you could answer that, that should - do you think a smack should be allowed as part of good parental correction?
BILL ENGLISH: Look, it's a matter of complying with the law of the land.
Radio Live 14 April 2009 READ Full Transcipt
Family First Comment: Mr English is asked five times a simple yes or no question. He refuses to answer it five times! Unfortunately he has the unenviable task of defending the indefensible.

Cindy Kiro - Children's Commissioner
The Wellingtonian newspaper: Did you smack your kids?
Kiro: I tried a couple of times. When my oldest was in nappies and was showing an interest in putting things into plug-points, I smacked him. And when they got to about eight or 10, I might have tried it, but I knew it was useless and pointless.
The Wellingtonian 8 April 2009
Family First Comment: Yep - this is the same 'Cindy Kiro' that said "we know more about parenting and child health and development now than we did in our parents’, grandparents’ and great grandparents’ times."!!!

Andrew Little - Labour President
He has smacked his son once or twice, "but our approach is non- violent discipline, and he is a pretty well-balanced kid".
Dominion Post 6 December 2008
Family First Comment: So a parent can use a smack but have a non-violent discipline approach. Yep - we agree!!

Chris Carter - Labour MP
"What I'm concerned about is that good parents will be punished for the bad behaviour of their kid.."
(Chris Carter criticising National’s truancy plan Dec 08)
Family First Comment: Ironic!

What does all this tell us?
Couple of things...
* Phil Goff doesn't understand the law that he voted for, and believes that if you break the law, you should not be prosecuted for it. Goff is effectively supporting the amendment being put up by ACT MP John Boscawen which is similar to National MP Chester Borrow's original proposed amendment. It begs the questions - why didn't they simply vote for Borrow's amendment in the first place?? Well, I guess we know the answer to that one, but she's left the country now Mr Goff. You're in charge.
* Bill English should find like-minded MP's in National who oppose the current law (which would be most of them) and demand that it be amended. When you can't even answer a simple question with a yes or a no, it's quite clear that the political agenda is hampering common sense.
* Cindy Kiro knows better than we do, and better than she did
* Andrew Little understands that smacking is not necessarily abuse, just as time out is not imprisonment, and a good telling off is not emotional abuse. it's not the technique that's the problem - it's how it's used.

Background

We all want to deal with our appalling rate of child abuse in New Zealand.

The government's response was to criminalise good parents who corrected their child with a light smack

and the child abuse continues....

Then they spent millions on media advertisements telling us what we already knew - that violence was not ok

and the child abuse continues....

WHY? Because they fail to identify or deal with the factors which lead to a greater chance of child abuse as identified in every UNICEF and CYF report - namely, family breakdown, drug and alcohol abuse, low maternal age at birth, poverty, poor housing, and single parenthood. See our 5-point Action Plan at www.stoptheabuse.org.nz

Help us hold the politicians accountable on how they have failed to deal with the real causes of child abuse while targeting good families with shoddy law making.

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP AND SUPPORT.
As Billy Graham said, "Our motto too often seems to be, ‘Stay aloof. Don’t get involved. Let somebody else stick his neck out.’ In the face of all kinds of conditions screaming to be rectified, too many of us find ourselves afflicted with moral laryngitis."

Let's speak up - and demand that as a country, we tackle actual causes of child abuse with solutions that will work.

MAKE THE POLITICIANS DEAL WITH THE REAL

CAUSES OF CHILD ABUSE

Each week another New Zealand child’s life is extinguished or damaged because violent parents or caregivers will not meet or can not cope with their responsibilities.

We are sick and tired of doing nothing while our babies and children are being abused and murdered.

When our families are messed up, our nation is messed up.

Please forward this letter to as many people as possible

Read what happened to little 3 year old Nia from Rotorua who lies in Starship Hospital at the moment

http://www.familyfirst.org.nz/nia.html

Read what happened to 3 year old Ngati from Otara, and the pathetic punishment his mum and step-dad received

http://www.familyfirst.org.nz/ngati.html

Read a 5 point action plan, designed to get the problem away from Politics and political agendas, and into the hands of local communities and organisations.

www.stoptheabuse.org.nz

Our silence is deafening and our children are suffering.

No More.