Crime remit thrown out

Press, 9 May 1983, Page 8

Crime remit thrown out

PA New Plymouth A call for a referendum on the reintroduction of corporal punishment for violent crimes was thrown out at yesterday’s Wellington divisional conference of the National Party. The referendum, to be held in conjunction with next year’s General Election, and providing a threeyear trial of corporal punishment, was defeated, 7354.

The remit was introduced by Mrs Jocelyn Mac Kay (Wairarapa), who said “dogooders” had tried their method and it had failed. Referring to the rising

crime rate, Mrs Mac Kay said that every concerned person must wonder what lay ahead. There seemed to be more misplaced sympathy for the criminal than for the victim.

The Minister of Police, Mr Ben Couch, said that a referendum would give everyone a democratic right to express what they felt. He said violent offending would continue and “a policeman on every corner” would not deter offenders. Corporal punishment would “not put a bandage on the sore: it would be major surgery.” But Mr Robert Sorley (Taranaki) said that the

police would be reluctant to be associated with such a controversial form of retribution and a “reversal of our penal code.” District Court judges would shrink from ordering physical chastisement.

Mr David Land (Hawke’s Bay) said that violence, including the rape of elderly women, showed that present methods had failed, and that the “soft way” with criminals had helped encourage certain types of criminal to commit extreme actions, because they did not suffer retribution. The criminal class had become a privileged one, he said.