KEY POINTS:
As a young boy growing up in Orakei, Matt Maihi remembers playing with homemade bows and arrows with his cousins - something his father frowned upon.
"My father was a hard taskmaster and very much against us playing bows and arrows," said Mr Maihi, 59.
"He would get
the bow off of one of us, break it in half and whack you around the arse with it, everyone used to run and try to hide.
"But it was a safety issue for him and we quickly learned not to use or play with those sorts of things."
Mr Maihi's comments on disciplining children appeared to be in line with the overwhelming view of Maori polled in a weekend Marae-DigiPoll, 80 per cent of whom were opposed to Sue Bradford's anti-smacking bill.
A relative of Mr Maihi, Eddie Downs, said he was never hit as a child but was disciplined as a Te Aute College student.
"Without discipline I probably would have gone off the rails."
"I think a couple of kicks up the arse or a clip around the ears never hurt anyone," he said.
The 38-year-old watersider from Orakei said although he would discipline his own children, there was a limit to how far he would go.
"I'm certainly not for smacking children but discipline is up to the parent and things seem to be getting too politically correct these days."
Janine Dewes, a 45-year-old solo mother of seven children, said she thought the intentions of Ms Bradford's bill were good but was afraid "good people could be criminalised" if the bill became law.
"In some situations a smack does the trick and I don't want to be criminalised for that," she said.
"I have changed my opinion on the issue but at the same time I think it is good because it is bringing it to the attention of the whole motu [country]."
Ms Dewes said if the bill became law it would not have any effect on violence in the home. She also questioned how the bill would actually be policed.
"It really is a cost on police resources which are stretched enough already and it's unfair for the community to be policing it.
"It would just create unnecessary fear and paranoia."
Her views were echoed by teacher Paddy Tai, who has been working with children at Te Kohanga Reo o Puau te Moananui a Kiwa in Glen Innes since 1995.
"I'm against smacking but not light smacking and would hate to see good parents going to court for trying to teach their children to do the right thing."
WHAT THEY SAY
Matt Maihi
Marae manager
Orakei Marae
59, Orakei
"I think there should be a tolerance in regards to parents being able to make decisions on disciplinary action of their own children."
Janine Dewes
Mother
45, Orakei
"This bill will not affect [violence in the home] statistics, the abusers are not the types of people who read newspapers or watch the news on TV so they have no idea of what's going on."
Eddie Downs
Watersider
38, Orakei
"A closed fist is definitely not reasonable force - that's just plain assault - but there's nothing wrong with an open-handed smack on the bum."
Paddy Tai
Kaiako (teacher)
56, Glen Innes
"It's confusing a lot of people who are thinking, 'if you get caught for light smacking, are you going to court for it'?"
