Smacking Referendum

Organisers of a petition to force a smacking referendum have been dealt a small blow after failing to gather
enough signatures.


They now have two more months to collect enough signatures.

The petition needed 280,275 signatures to force a referendum but fell short after a number were excluded
because they were either illegible, the signatory's date of birth could not be confirmed, or involved people
who signed multiple times.

In a statement, the Office of the Clerk said an audit of signatures found that no more than 269,500 were
eligible. That is a shortfall of about 15,500 signatures.

Family First spokesman Bob McCroskie appeared confident that any shortfall would easily be made up in
the two months available.

He said politicians should respond now, not after the election, to the wishes of parents.

"The passing of the anti-smacking law by most of our politicians last year was an act of breathtaking
arrogance which ignored the wishes of the very people who elected them to represent them in the making of
our laws."

When United Future’s Peter Dunne presented a 42,000 signature petition last year calling on daylight saving to
be extended by 3 weeks, he said “There is no doubt that more daylight saving is what New Zealanders want,
and the Internal Affairs Minister is going to be extremely hard-pressed to do anything other than heed our call.”

“The government almost tripped over itself in its rush to amend the law.”

“With almost eight times more signatures on this petition, it is now time to amend the anti-smacking law,
to leave good parents alone, and to target the real causes of child abuse and actual child abusers.”

If you want to sign the Petition go to this site and download the form.

Unity for Liberty