Open Letter FAIL

Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE) has published an open letter, claiming that it is sent out on behalf of the Yes Vote Coalition. Only thing is... it's not from the Yes Vote Coalition, but from SAVE leader Johny O'Donnel... I think somebody is going to be getting a smack!

Open letter published below...

Yes Vote Open Letter
Monday, 24 August 2009, 10:20 am
Press Release: YesVote Coalition

Dear the public,

A huge thanks must go to the nearly 90% of voters who chose to vote no in the recent referendum. Many thanks for putting our rights at risk, many thanks for ignoring our opinions of the law, many thanks for voting towards a repeal of our rights, many thanks for being miss lead by an ambiguous question and how could I forget a huge thanks for voting towards children being the only group of people in society you could legally hit- it shows great confidence in us as young people!

Demoralising was the response I got from our group called Students Against Violence Everywhere, despite our tireless efforts to protect our rights from right wing extremists the public still decided it was ok to hit us, not your wife or your husband, not your friend or family member, no it is children our most vulnerable citizens.

It gives us as young people great confidence in our country to think, that nearly 90% of you believe that we should have a law that says it's ok to hit children.

A true and honest thanks goes to those who vote positively, those who decided not to stand for the rights of children being put at risk, those who votes yes. We must thank you from the bottom of or hearts for having faith in us and believing that we shouldn't be hit.

Many thanks
Johny O'Donnell and the SAVE Team

ENDS

Foreign Funding FAIL

"Are we allowing foreign political interests to meddle in New Zealand’s electoral process? If so that’s very scary!" - writes the author of the Yes Vote blog in his article, USA Religious Right funds Vote No.

However a cursory glance at the Yes Vote blog reveals the hypocricy in this statement, as it reveals that the Yes Vote campaign has the support of a number of International pressure groups such as Save the Children, Barnados and Unicef.

Dear NZ, Sweden Wants To Tell You Something

The Sweden branch of Save the Children has set up a site as Scrubone pointed out, called dearnz.com. They claim that "this is what the rest of the world has to say on the anti-smacking law". However not surprisingly, the only alternative translation of the site is Swedish which means that it is in fact Sweden saying this, not "the rest of the world".

Further, it is clear that the site would not have been launched had the Swedish organisers not been confident of a strong yes vote in their poll (currently at 67% yes, 33% no). The most likely scenario is that the site was launched (13 August) with the poll already displaying a majority in favour of the yes vote - and the Swedish organisers will have "justified this" by presuming that all their signed up members would have voted yes anyway.

Either way, it's completely irrelevant to the New Zealand situation. Why would a site that has been operational for 5 days have any bearing whatsoever on the outome of the referendum in New Zealand? Polling conducted since 2005 has consistently shown that over 80% of Kiwis know that there is a big difference between child abuse and a smack.

John Key: Will He FAIL?

Barnados FAIL Again

In 2006 Barnados and Plunket issued a Press Release assuring Parents they would not be criminalised for smacking their children under the new law. They said if Parents were persecuted by Police or CYFS they would be “outraged” and they called upon the Police and CYFS to give assurance that this would not happen. Of course this didn’t happen and now parents are being persecuted. How come Murray Edridge isn’t still “Outraged” ... does he still assure parents they will not be persecuted ?

Click here to read the press release.

Judy Bailey FAIL

I read a small article in The Press a few weeks ago entitled "Anti-smackers retain Bailey".

"Mother of the Nation", Judy Bailey's comments are absolutely vile. Her comments in the article are copied below...

"This whole debate was never about light smacking or good parental correction; it was all about the parents who choose to beat their children with jug cords or bits of four-by-two... [The law change] sent a powerful message to us all that hitting children is not good parenting. Children who were hit by their parents often grew up seeing violence as the answer to problems, and whole communities believed "it is normal to hang a child from a washing line". Good parenst have absolutely nothing to fear from this legislation"

Stating that the entire community in which poor Nia Glassie lived was essentially complicit in her brutal torture and murder is just not acceptable.

Bailey's other incorrect comments pale into insignificance compared with this awful, thoughtless and offensive statement.

??? Coalition ???? - FAIL

The Coaltion of Anti Smackers don't quite know who they are and they also don't know how to send off a press release without it going twice.

Taken from here

Here we see them calling themselves the "Vote Yes Coalition"

Here they are calling themselves "The Yes Vote Coalition"

I think we need to know who is behind this group. They obviously are having leadership problems and naming problems as they are sending out the same press release twice and they are also having a fight over what they should call themselves.

Vote Yes for confusing messages about how best to bring up your kids is how I interpret this one.

Sounds like a FAIL to me!

TV and Time Out - FAIL

I was amazed to hear Yes Vote campaigner Robyn Malcolm admit to 'violent' urges and using timeout in Yesterday's NZ Herald.

She first says, "I have wanted to smack them - I've felt the urge,"

She then goes on and explains how she disciplines her children.

"I separate myself from them. I go hang the washing. I'm the adult, I'm the one who can remove myself or put them in front of a video for 20 minutes and go and make a cup of tea."

What a FAIL. Putting your children in front of the television is failed parenting and shows that you really don't have a clue to both keep control in the home, or to be able to give discipline which will teach a lesson.

Children will just play up knowing they will get some time in front of the television.

But what happens when the children are playing up because you don't want them watching the box?

Secondly Robyn goes onto explain another 'great' discipline method.

"Timeout is really good", she says.

That is a FAIL in itself. Has Robyn not read the law? It say all force used to correct your child is illegal. Using timeout involves forcing your children to stay in one place.

I'm sorry but even this advocate of the new law has broken the law.

FAIL

A law that works ? - FAIL

We were told that the Anti-smacking law would do something to stop child abuse. However this is not the case with child abuse rates staying constant since the law was passed.

The Yes vote lobby then goes and tells us that the law is working because parents aren't being prosecuted for a light smack.

Thus this logo.

My question is then, how come they base there view on whether or not the law is working on the amount of good parents who are being prosecuted, when the law was apparently passed to stop child abuse?

Maybe this should really be there logo.

Sounds like a FAIL to me

Yes Vote Ignores Parents... FAIL!!!

The Yes Vote group report on Children’s Commissioner John Angus in his latest statement...

“I’m pleased that CYF and health services are already focusing on the prevention of abuse and neglect amongst infants, for example in the changes to the Well Child services... We simply cannot afford to ignore the harm done to our children - it is a significant issue for New Zealand and one that requires the full efforts of all those working with families and young children.”

Yeah, typical. The "yes vote" site is all about ignoring that harm and attacking parents who use **reasonable** force to dicipline their children.

 

Oh, the irony. FAIL!

Yes Vote Misinformation FAIL!

The Yes Vote group have a list of FAQs on their website. In their FAQ, Why is the referendum worded so poorly?, they state that, "A significant objection was raised by the Ministry of Justice but this was ignored". However after making a request for information under the Official Information Act I have found that this statement is blatantly untrue.

1. The Ministry of Justice made four points (note, not objections) regarding the initial question submitted by Sheryl Savill - not the final version as the FAQ implies.
   
2. The Ministry of Justice's points were not ignored as the Yes Vote group allege. At the Ministry's suggestion, "within the context of positive parenting" was altered to "as part of good parental correction".
   

Click here to view the submission made by the Ministry of Justice.

Light Smack - FAIL

The Yes Vote team a desperate to tell us that A light smack is not a criminal offence.

Here they say, "You don’t need to worry about going to jail for lightly smacking your own child; no-one has been sent to jail for that."

What rubbish, can they please explain to me the new law. If I lightly smack my child for any reason, then I have committed assault.

Whos to say I won't go to jail?

Just because no-one has been sent to jail for that yet, doesn't mean it won't happen in the future.

And what if I dare give a light smack for the purpose of correction?

FAIL

Clenched Fist FAIL!

The Nelson Mail is reporting about the SAVE group which was started up a few months back by some teenagers in Nelson. The article features the following photo of two of the members...

Yeah well that's a good way to get an anti-violence message out isn't it... Youth-based anti-child abuse group YACA is supporting a NO vote on the referendum, however they are dead set against child abuse and unlikely to present themselves as youth waving their fists in your face.

Deborah Morris-Travers FAIL!

From SPCS' latest press release...

"New Zealanders may have forgotten that in 1997 Deborah Morris-Travis, currently spokesperson for the VoteYes anti-smacking campaign, while the then Minister of Youth Affairs, vigorously lobbied to have condom vending machines in all our schools and colleges and in all places where young people gather. She failed in her "condomania bid" as it was referred to. The Dominion Post (30 June) has reported that Board members of a primary school in her sedate seaside hometown of sunny Otaki, have resigned in the wake of the fallout over children as young as 6 and 10 at the school being forced by their teacher to pick up used condoms in the school grounds. Parents are outraged at the failure of St Peter Chanel's board of management to deal with the condomania scandal and associated health and safety issues involved." - continue reading

One of the key people behind the Yes Vote group believes that there should be condom vending machines in all schools? Heck, what sort of a message would that send out to the youngsters? FAIL!

YES VOTE Democracy FAIL

Yes Vote is claiming that because a couple of academics in Otago think the referendum is a waste of time, then it must be stopped.





One lecturer says the referendum is an "absolutely appalling waste of money” - FAIL

We all know it is Helen Clarks fault that it is going to cost $10 Million. She had the choice to have it in conjunction with the election. But she was more worried about her short term political prosepects than democracy



Another lecturer says the referendum has "no legal impact whatsoever” - FAIL

All referendums have no legal impact. Only Parliament can change the law. As a professer of law, Andrew Geddis should know what he's talking about.

New Zealand needs to have its say on this issue. We forced a referendum so that New Zealanders could tell the Government what they think of the Anti-Smacking law.

I think we all know that paying for lecturers such as these is an 'appalling waste of money'.

YES VOTE RUNNING SCARED - FAIL!

The Yes Vote campaign continues to demand that the referendum be pulled before Friday. Their only problem is that they have their spin going the wrong way.

In the below Screen shot of their latest press release they say "Promoters of the child discipline referendum are increasingly damaging their own cause by failing to take the opportunity to call it off" - FAIL - The referendum is our cause! We got the signatures. We forced the referendum. We want all New Zealanders to have a say!



Deborah Morris-Travers goes onto say "“Even among those who support their question, there is an overwhelming belief that the whole exercise is a terrible waste of money." - FAIL. No we are angry at Helen Clark for not having the referendum in conjunction with the election and saving 8 Million bucks.

She continues, "Demanding an amendment to the child discipline law in return for calling off the referendum is outrageous. The law grants children the same legal protections as all other citizens have. This is fair and reasonable, especially when law is being administered sensibly and sensitively." - FAIL. I think we see this law through different pairs of glasses Deborah. We have different opinions. I think you have just explained why we need a referendum!

The Yes Vote campaign are running scared. They don't want the referendum because they know they will lose. It is also a real shame that they have such a low regard for democracy.

Parents in a Rage? FAIL!

The Section 59 blog picked up on a strange comment on the Yes Vote site at the beginning of June...

The Yes Vote campaign has some advice for parents on their little blog...

Parenting tip: Nip anger in the bud... take steps to control your own rage.

rage: noun. Violent, explosive anger; A fit of anger.

Heck, how many parents do you know who rage with anger against their children? Whether they act on that rage is beside the point: what would cause parents to be filled with rage against their children in the first place? Surely a word such as frustration, dissapointment or annoyance would be more fitting?

hahahah, FAIL!

Labour FAIL

The Vote No blog reports...

Family First NZ is welcoming comments by a senior Labour MP that the Referendum wording is not confusing.

What an embarrassment for Labour. They are trying to spread the propaganda that the question is ambiguous and hard to understand - but here's one of their own MPs speaking his mind and clarifying that the question is in fact easy to understand.

Barnados Lying FAIL!

Dave at Big News has uncovered another major FAIL...

Barnardos have been interviewing children by phone to see what they think about getting smacked. The question they asked

Do you think that adults who are taken to court for hitting a child should be let off if they say they were disciplining the child?

Well, of course they shouldn't unless they were their caregivers. The kids had to push 1 if they should be let off 2 if they think they should not be let off, 3 if they don't know and 4 to hear the question again. Just over half said they should not be let off. Many probably didn't understand what " let off" meant- left off convicting is the assumption.Nor is it clear whether "adults" included strangers.

They interviewed stressed kids who called the Whats Up hotline, a hotline for kids to talk about anything they wish, including abuse. While the kid was waiting to speak to a real person, they were given an automated message with the above question. That's a little like asking turkeys on the 15 December whether they are looking forward to Christmas. There was only a 10% valid response rate...

continue reading Dave's post here.

Yes Campaign FAIL !!

Yes Vote Campaigner Hayden N admits his ignorance on smacking.

He says "The Yes campaign are doing ok, but there isn't anything out there, that in simple terms, explains that a smack was ALWAYS assault, (Even I didn't realise this until recently).




I'm sorry Hayden, but you are quite right. A smack is not assault and never has been. Great to see that you are learning though.

FAIL