The anti-smacking law is to blame for youth suicide, youth prostitution and even sexually-transmitted infections, a leading Conservative party candidate claims.
Edward Saafi, who is fifth on the Conservative list and would be elected if they break the 5 per cent threshold, has delivered the striking message during recent speeches at Tongan churches, Fairfax has learned.
"We are starting to recognise the incidence of suicide going up in Pacific communities, especially the Tongan community and people are starting to understand the lead-on from this legislation.
"Once you pass it, children, rather than doing what mum and dad says, they go and commit suicide. It opens up another thing they could do," Saafi, who holds a doctorate in biomedicine, said.
Asked if he thought there was a direct link between the anti-smacking bill and youth suicide, Saafi said: "It's just common sense, really. It's our way of thinking parents have a role to look after their kids, including disciplining them. If the law tells the child that mum and dad can't discipline you any more, they will do whatever they want, including these other alternatives like suicide. It's quite appalling."
God approved!
So basically this is a candidate for the New Zealand Conservative Party says that smacking your children will prevent them from doing all sorts of terrible things. And whilst I do not agree with this man in particular, I do think that the anti-smacking law, which was passed in Labour's last term in 2007 and was the subject of a controversial referendum in 2009, had the best intentions but did not actively seek to reduce the horrific amount of domestic abuse this country suffers.
So the question to you NSG is not whether or not this man is correct (I used him merely to make Americans feel better about themselves) but whether or not the anti-smacking bill is an effective piece of legislation and whether or not it should remain as law. Because the way I see it, nothing has changed before or since the bill was introduced.