87.6%

Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand? New Zealand says NO. While an average of polls taken since 2005 indicate a 82.9% level of opposition to the law, tonight's preliminary response blows those polls out of the water. It's official, 87.6% of Kiwis believe that there is a difference between a smack and child abuse. Preliminary results here. Family First is calling on the Government to immediately repeal the law: something Prime Minster John Key has already stated is all but inevitable.

Dave Crampton says,

more people 1,420,959 - voted No than those who party voted all parliamentary parties other than Labour in the 2008 election.

And Scrubone observes,

No wonder the “Yes Vote” were so bitchy about the victory party – they simply had no hope of having one themselves.

And high-profile blogger and pollster David Farrar comments,

1,622,150 votes cast which I think is a 54% response rate. That is higher than most local body elections and pretty good for a referendum not held with a general election... A massive victory for common sense.

Click here to download an Excel spreadsheet with detailed information of the response in each electorate. Prior to the results coming out, I was projecting a modest NO vote between 70% - 80%, however Simeon said he thought it would be 86%. Good on ya Simeon, and thanks for all your tireless work without which this referendum would never have come about.

82.29%

82.29%

That's the average of the 35 main polls (note, includes poll on Young Labour website!) taken between 2005 - 2009. The referendum question is not flawed. Parents who smack their children are not child abusers. Sue Bradford doesn't understand her own law and Prime Minister John Key has no backbone.

John, if you continue refusing to listen to the people, National will lose the 2011 election.

Your call.

2009 Research, 83% NZers say Change Smacking Law

from the Section59 blog

Almost two years after the passing of the controversial anti-smacking law, more than 80% of NZ’ers still want the law changed and 77% say that the law won’t have any effect on our unacceptable child abuse rate.
These are the key finding of research commissioned by Family First NZ, following on from similar research in 2007 and 2008. The Curia Market Research poll surveyed 1,000 people, and also found huge confusion over the legal effect of the law.
83% said that the new law should be changed to state explicitly that parents who give their children a smack that is reasonable and for the purpose of correction are not breaking the law (85% in 2008, 82% in 2007).

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Key Findings:
83% say the law should be changed – only 13% say to keep it as is
77% says the law won’t help reduce the rate of child abuse in NZ
Less than one third of respondents actually understand the law

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Below are two graphs from the Press Release

Click here to read the full article

Regular Bible Reading Essential for Christians

My mate Andrew got interviewed by The Press yesterday, for an article they were writing about a study just out that indicates that shows 46 per cent of Kiwis identify as Christian, but just 5% of people read the Bible daily and only 6% weekly.

"Andrew Sinclair, 24, of Christchurch, reads the Bible "almost daily". Sinclair, who is a ministry trainee at St John's Anglican Church in Latimer Square, said it was essential for Christians to read the Bible regularly.
"This is God's word and this is how he speaks to us. We ought to be reading it to know more about him," he said." 

Andrew's right, you can't grow as a Christian if you're not regularly reading the Bible.

Bible Society representative, Stephen Opie said "Christian churches tended to focus more on entertainment and motivating their parishioners rather than preaching from the Bible, he said.", and he is horribly correct, this is a huge problem with churches all around the world today.

Click here to read the article at www.stuff.co.nz.

Update, 8:55pm: picture added.

National 14 points ahead

In the most recent Roy Morgan poll, National is polling at 14 points ahead of Labour. Results below.

October 29-Novmber 11, 2007
Labour 34
National 48
NZ First 5.5
Greens 7.5
United Future 1
Maori 2.5
ACT 1
Other 0.5

This comes after the month of October where the gap between the two parties was much closer, at times around 5%.

National: ahead of Labour in the Roy Morgan poll

The latest Roy Morgan Research poll shows National has lost ground although it is still well ahead of Labour.

The poll of 899 voters puts National on 45 per cent support, down 3.5 points on the previous Roy Morgan poll, with Labour unchanged on 36 per cent.

The Green Party was unchanged on 8.5 per cent, ACT was up 1.5 points to 2.5 per cent, The Maori Party was up 2 points to 3.5 per cent, New Zealand First was down 1 point to 2 per cent, and United Future was unchanged on 1.5 per cent.

The poll was conducted between February 19 and March 4.

The previous poll was conducted between February 6 and February 18.

The latest poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 per cent.