In NZ, the election campaign (polling on 8 November)is well and truly into a serious phase, with Helen Clark and John Key now neck and neck according to latest polls. Clark scored well on early impressions by pitching the Labour campaign at the question of trust, playing neatly to the fact that Key has an unfortunate shiftiness and hesitancy compared to Clarke's calm, unwavering, if wooden manner. No doubt Key's minders will be putting in some serious hours on media training to overcome his impediment.
Meanwhile perennial public interest in the role of Laura Norder in society, as well as the illegality of corporal punishment of minors for correction, has surged back to bolster support for the conservative National Party. Shame on NZ: we moved out of the Dark Ages and took steps towards addressing a culture of violence with the repeal of clause 59 (permitting "reasonable force" in the disciplining of children) in The Crimes Act 1961. There is no reason to re-visit this step in the right direction, despite the wish of some to link a restraint of physical correction in the home to a moral breakdown in society. "I smack my 14 year old son!" a mother of five was quoted as saying in the Herald this morning. I wonder how effective that is? I wonder how she feels as she does it - satisfied? Is her outrage that her adolescent child misbehaves somehow quelled? Will smacking help if he simply runs away? And why does she think this is going to make any diference when the crucial years for his moral development are long gone?
Let the the Moral Majority ride roughshod in the US, where Sarah Palin, the most frighteningly inexperienced politician on the planet, enjoys strong support for her appeal to motherhood and apple pie. Puh-lease.
