The Great Smacking Debate is in full flight in New Zealand where a law change two years ago specifically banned the use of “force” for the purpose of correcting children. Opponents of the new law collected enough signatures to secure a referendum on the smacking issue, which takes place next month. A New Zealand Herald poll last week shows that 85 per cent of parents of young children plan to vote No on the question: “Should a smack as part of good parental be a criminal offence in New Zealand?”

The Weekend Herald-DigiPoll survey put questions by phone to 100 mothers and 100 fathers of 4-year-olds identified through a national database. Two-thirds of the parents were aged 30 to 39 and 51 per cent had degrees or diplomas -- so they cannot be dismissed as young and ignorant. Four out of five said they would vote in the postal referendum, and only 14 per cent said they would not -- contradicting wishful thinking by politicians that there will be a low response.

Questions about styles of discipline showed that parents have turned away from smacking their children frequently, but two-thirds of bother mothers and fathers said they smack at least occasionally -- despite the law, which has seen a few parents booked by the police. There has been a sharp increase in the popularity of “time out” forms of discipline, with two-thirds of parents saying the punishment they used most often was sending the child to their room or placing them on a “naughty mat”. Earlier New Zealand research showed the most common form of punishment from the 1960s to the 1990s was scolding and growling.

Rewarding good behaviour has leapt in popularity. The proportion who do so at least “sometimes” has risen steadily from 57 per cent in the 1960s to 95 per cent today.

The anti-smacking law came from the Green Party during the former Labour-led government. The referendum campaign has been led by Bob McCroskie of grassroots organisation Family First. When McCroskie got his 300,000 signatures, Labour refused to run the referendum during last November’s general election -- its leader, like most politicians, adopting the position that smacking was “violence” against children. Earlier it had been a different story:

In a famous exchange in 2005, McCoskrie, then a breakfast host on Radio Rhema, asked Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark whether she supported a ban on smacking.

Clark replied: "Absolutely not, I think you are trying to defy human nature."