Doubtful claims

The DomPost has published a piecemeal item on latest child abuse figures. It contains a false assumption and mis-matches information.

The article leads with, Nearly 25,000 Maori children have come to the attention of Child Youth and Family Services in the past year - more than any other group.

25,000 notifications does not equal 25,000 children. A substantiated case of abuse might be the result of multiple notifications.

There have been more than 63,800 cases of suspected child abuse or neglect in the past 12 months, up from 53,000 the previous year.

Then an ethnic breakdown is given which includes figures of 24,500 for Maori; Pakeha 20,300; Pacific Island 6,938; and Asian 1,247.

These figures total 52,895. Unless there are further ethnicities providing another 10,105 cases, the breakdown must refer to the previous year.

So did the reporter use the previous year's breakdown to make the already dubious claim about the most recent twelve 12 months?

It is important to get the data out there but even more important that a false picture isn't painted. The leading claim is exactly the sort of thing the Maori Party is justified in objecting to.