‘My mother loved the wooden spoon’: MP says parents SHOULD smack misbehaving kids – and claims it would lead to a fall in crime
- North Queensland MP Nick Dametto is fed up with crime in his city of Townsville
- Katter’s Australian Party member said his mum loved him and the wooden spoon
- First-term politician said kids as young as 10 were walking streets causing havoc
- Brisbane psychologist Justin Coulson said smacking made kids more anti-social
An MP fed up with wayward youth has called for parents to smack misbehaving kids, claiming it will lead to a reduction in crime.
Nick Dametto advocated physical punishment following a spate of drug and property crime at Townsville in north Queensland.
The Katter’s Australian Party member for Hinchinbrook said children as young as 10 were running rampant on the streets because their parents had failed to properly discipline them.
An MP fed up with wayward youth has called for parents to smack misbehaving kids claiming it will lead to a reduction in crime (pictured is Katters Australian Party MP Nick Dametto)
‘We might be kicking a bit of a hornet’s nest here but we’ve got a whole generation that need something done with them,’ he told Sky News on Thursday night.
‘My mother loved me but she also loved the wooden spoon as well.’
The first-term member of the Queensland Parliament, whose largely rural seat takes in Townsville’s northern outskirts, said children under 10 were walking the streets ‘causing this kind of havoc’.
‘Alarm bells should be going off right now with society,’ he said.
Nick Dametto advocated physical punishment following a spate of drug and property crime at Townsville in north Queensland
‘What is wrong with these kids?’
Mr Dametto, a 35-year-old former jet ski shop owner, said their parents were to blame.
‘I bet you look at their parents right now. They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,’ he said.
‘What are these parents getting up to? Because they’re obviously not giving these kids the love.’
Townsville is a crime hot spot in north Queensland, with the city having significantly higher rates of car thefts, burglaries and drug possession, compared with Mackay and Rockhampton, Queensland Police Service data showed.
The number of drug offences in Townsville more than doubled from 2,440 in 2009 to 5,839 last year while the robbery soared soared from 57 in 2014 to 111 just two years later.
The first-term MP, whose seat takes in Townsville’s northern outskirts, said children under 10 were walking the streets ‘causing this kind of havoc’
Brisbane-based psychologist Justin Coulson said smacking children did not improve discipline, arguing it made them more likely to defy their parents.
‘They just get scared – or sneaky. The research tells us they become more likely to be aggressive, anti-social, delinquent, and in the worst cases, behave criminally,’ he said in a blog post.
Dr Coulson said smacking hurt the relationship between a parent and child and broke trust.
‘Mental health challenges can occur, and once again in serious cases, children become at greater risk of either abusing or being abused as they get older,’ he said.
‘As for the argument that kids wouldn’t be up to mischief if more people smacked them, that’s a weak argument.’
Mr Dametto, a 35-year-old former jet ski shop owner, said their parents were to blame