Smacking not okay, Eastern Bay Maori told

SMACKING NOT OKAY, EASTERN BAY MAORI TOLD. (cited in Whakatane Beacon, 26 June 2009).

VOTING “yes” in the smacking referendum is the only way to go, anti-smacking advocate Hone Kaa has told an Eastern Bay audience. About 30 people attended an anti-violence and anti-smacking hui at Te Hokowhitu a Tu in Keepa Road on Wednesday.
Organised by Te Kahui Mana Ririki – a charitable trust established to combat Maori child abuse – the hui had two purposes.

“The first is we want people to vote ‘yes’ in the referendum,” Dr Kaa, Te Kahui Mana Ririki’s chairman said. “The question is deliberately misleading and it’s also mischievous.” He said it was important Maori not be “duped” by the referendum question, which asks: Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?

Dr Kaa said the question connected smacking with good parenting, which was the mischievous trick hidden in the question. Dr Kaa said Maori should vote “yes” in the referendum, because the current law prohibiting smacking was working well.
The other reason Te Kahui Mana Ririki had come to Whakatane was to carry on the work with reducing abuse in Maori families. “The trust’s central purpose is around eliminating child abuse in Maori communities,” Dr Kaa said.

Te Kahui Mana Ririki director Antony Blank and strategy manager Helen Harte had travelled with Dr Kaa to Whakatane. “We all live in Auckland, and we need to co-ordinate with people and find suitable venues,” Dr Kaa said. “We try to do at least one lecture per week,” he said. At the Whakatane hui, several of the attendees were older people – which was good, he said “Maori people listen to their elders, so it’s important to have them here.”

Statistics gathered by Te Kahui Mana Ririki reveal Maori children are four times more likely to be hospitalised as the result of deliberately-inflicted physical harm; Maori are twice as likely to experience abuse as other groups; and New Zealand has the third highest rate of infanticide in the OECD, with about a third being Maori deaths.