SPCS

Family Integrity says that Swedish lawyer Ruby Harrold-Claesson, who coming to New Zealand next month, will be the most qualified person ever to speak in New Zealand on the effect of Sweden’s smacking ban on that country’s social fabric.

Dr Joan Durrant of the University of Manitoba in Canada has been to New Zealand twice reporting on her research trips to Sweden – all paid for by the Swedish government. Plunket, Barnardos, the Children’s and Families’ Commissioners, UNICEF, EPOCH and others, who were all happy to listen to Dr Durrant, will at last be able to speak face to face with someone who not only lives in Sweden and speaks Swedish, but someone who, as a lawyer there, deals directly with the interface between the law and its application to society. It appears this interface is savagely chewing up many children and families, leaving a trail of permanent damage. But it is all done in the best interests of the child, they say.

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Family Integrity representatives attended the first sitting of the Justice and Electoral Select Committee last Thursday to consider submissions on MP Sue Bradford’s Bill to repeal Section 59.

It was a showcase of the “heavies” lined up in favour of repeal: Save the Children, EPOCH, Familes Commission, UNICEF, Parent.org, Barnardos, Relationship Services, CCS, IHC and the Commissioner for Children. Each of these was totally in favour of repeal, and each was also absolutely opposed to any amendment or attempt to define what constitutes “reasonable force”. It was almost as if they were reading from the same script as each one mentioned the following 8 points:

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