The United Nations (UN) has called on Australia to ban the "smacking" of children. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has urged Australia to prevent parents from "reasonably" smacking their children and encourage them to use other forms of discipline.

The UN committee's recommendations were outlined by National Children's Commissioner Megan Mitchell in the first report to federal Parliament.

According to the recommendations, all professionals who are working with children like teachers and childcare workers should report cases of violence against children. Ms Mitchell said the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child gives parents the right to discipline their children, but does not specifically enumerate how it should go about.

She has called on the Abbott government to sign an international treaty to give children the right to complain to the UN when their rights are being violated. Under the international treaty, children have the right to education, rest and leisure, protection from "cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment."

Despite the UN's recommendations to ban smacking, Prime Minister Tony Abbott does not agree with the international body. He rejected the proposal and said that Australia will turn into a "nanny state" if parents are banned from smacking their children.

Mr Abbott, who has three daughters, said he was one of those parents who did "occasionally chastise the children", although he preferred a "very gentle smack". He said that he knows parents should treat their children well, but smacking should not be banned.

Child abuse case

In a surprising turn of events, an incest cult was recently revealed in Australia involving 40 adults and children. Authorities have discovered an incest cult in a remote Australian valley with filthy and severely deformed children, suffering from child abuse for years.

The Colt family moved from one place to another to avoid detection. Unwashed and unkempt children born from generations of incest were found in a cult composed of 40 adults and teenagers in New South Wales, Australia.

The children were incapable of intelligent speech and some had physical deformities as a result of parents being related. In what is considered as the most appalling child abuse case in the country, over four generations of brothers, sisters, uncles and aunts had sexual intercourse with one another. Their offspring were raised in deplorable conditions who grew up and had sex with their relatives, producing more inbred children.

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