Date: November 2003

Tasmania Law Reform Institute proposes abolition

The Tasmania Law Reform Institute released a report on Physical Punishment of Children in November 2003. The report follows the circulation of an issues paper by the Institute in October 2002. The Tasmania Children's Commissioner proposed the topic to the Institute in September 2001.

The report - available at http://www.law.utas.edu.au/reform/ - examines the current law relating to the physical punishment of children, in particular focussing on section 50 of the Tasmania Criminal Code which allows parents, or a person in the place of a parent, to use force to punish a child as long as that force is "reasonable in the circumstances". The report concludes that the current law is unclear. Lack of clarity means:

• the law offers no clear guide to parents on what level of physical punishment of their children is acceptable; and
• prosecutions are difficult even in cases of apparently serious child abuse.

The Law Commission therefore recommends law reform and makes three alternative recommendations - each proposed by a majority of the Institute's Board. They are:

• Recommendation 1: that the defence of reasonable correction be abolished;
• Recommendation 2: if the Parliament does not implement the first recommendation, in the alternative, a staged approach is recommended. The first stage involving the clarification of section 50, the second stage, two years later - the abolition of the defence (repeal of section 50);
• Recommendation 3: if the Parliament does not implement the first or second recommendations, it is recommended that section 50 be clarified, and that in two years the appropriateness of the availability of the defence be reviewed.

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