Violence is normal, child forum told by MP

By FRANCESCA MOLD

Act MP Stephen Franks shocked children's advocates at a Wellington forum yesterday by suggesting they should try to channel violence rather than abolish it.

Mr Franks' hard-hitting comments contrasted starkly with messages from the five MPs representing other political parties at the Unicef-sponsored conference.

They concentrated on discussing ways to alleviate child poverty and whether they would repeal Section 59 of the Crimes Act, which allows parents to use reasonable force when disciplining their children.

But Mr Franks talked about the role of violence in society and the need to find ways to organise and channel it because it runs too deep to abolish.

The Act MP hinted at the controversial nature of his speech when he began by asking whether there were media present. He was concerned that his comments would be taken out of context and made it clear his views were personal rather than reflective of party policy.

Mr Franks said New Zealand was "soaking in violence".

But it was important to accept that it was normal and had to be carefully channelled or society would never get on top of the problem.

"For us to say we are going to tackle child brutality by saying we will eliminate violence or even think that we can eliminate violence makes us irrelevant," he said.

Mr Franks' comments drew angry muttering and hissing from the audience. But he continued by pointing out that violence was present in everyday life, including sports such as boxing and rugby where it was ritualised and channelled. Also, New Zealand's second-largest ethnic group, Maori, claimed warfare as a taonga (treasure), he said.

"Violence is very, very normal. Sadly the boundary between brutality and violence ... blurs for some people. But we can't deal with a brutality problem by pretending all forms of aggression are violence."

Mr Franks said other political parties were being deceptive when they claimed that repealing section 59 would not result in parents' being brought before the court for smacking their children. The police would be forced to charge decent, well-intentioned parents.

Mr Franks said many people did not believe that smacking their children should be equated with child brutality and if Unicef attacked that view, it deserved the disregard it would get.

Meanwhile, National has issued its policy on children.

Leader Bill English said that, if elected, National would review the Family Assistance programme to ensure all families entitled to the tax relief received it.

National would also ensure more families had access to home visitation programmes such as Family Start and would work to reduce the level of transience among families.

Payments would be increased for foster and kin-carers and National would ensure Child Youth and Family Services responded quickly and appropriately to at-risk children.

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