Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10507015

This news article reports that the 'pro-smacking lobby' failed to gain enough votes to repeal the 'acclaimed' anti-smacking law in New Zealand. Whats amazing to me as an Amercian is that there are laws necessary to prevent smacking. Why is it that enough adults have abused their authority as parents that the government must step in and control us? What kind of parents are there in New Zealand?

As a child, I was threatened with 'the belt'. My parent's parents threatened, and on occasion, beat them. Theres nothing like a good beating to deter bad behavior in children!

Now seriously, if you really do have to beat your kid to keep them in line, they probably deserved it. If you are a parent who needs to be told that you can't beat your kids, then you probably shouldn't be allowed to have kids in the first place. So we need laws to tell us when we can or can't drive a car or drink alcohol or smoke - but we let anybody raise a kid? I think we should drop this legislation all together and just have some sort of qualifier for potential parents - like a drivers test, but for mommies and daddies to be. Oops! Get cought having a kid with no license? Fine! Jail time! Take away that kid until you get licensed. Then we have no need for silly laws like this.