In an article on Stuff, the following is being reported…

Parents being investigated for smacking their children were today encouraged by Prime Minister John Key to ring a new help line so they know their rights.

The helpline is one of four recommendations Key said the Government had accepted and would implement following a review of the so-called “anti-smacking law”.

Guidelines for social workers on how to deal with child abuse reports involving smacking would also be published immediately.

The new parent support helpline within Child Youth and Family (CYF) would be for parents with questions or concerns about how they were being dealt with in relation to the law.

The review group was set up in September to check on how police and CYF were implementing the law change. It included Ministry of Social Development chief executive Peter Hughes, Commissioner of Police Howard Broad and celebrity psychologist Nigel Latta.

Key said the review had found police and CYF had effective guidelines to make sure good parents were treated “as parliament intended” under the law.

“However, more can be done to reassure parents they will not be criminalised or unduly investigated for a light smack,” the review found.

The group recommended the new guidelines for social workers and the telephone helpline. It had also suggested police and social workers be required to give families specific information on what to expect, what their rights were and what they could do to question what was happening when they had to deal with police or CYFs over the law.

A final recommendation was to collect more specific information on the application of the law so a clearer picture was available on how it was working.

“The Government does not want to see good parents criminalised for a light smack,” Key said.

Latta was a controversial selection on the review panel, because he openly voted against the so-called “anti-smacking law” in a referendum on the matter earlier this year.

Read the rest of the article HERE!

Has anything developed post the Sue Bradford bill?  Is there greater clarity on where the government stands on this issue?  Is this just moving the chairs around on the Titanic?

What say you?

Always Informing, for the Always Reforming, From the Land of the Long White Cloud

Man of Spin