Maori children on benefit

Some good work here by Simon Collins, the Herald's social issues reporter. He has attempted to establish how many Maori children have a parent on a benefit. He arrives at 45.9 percent.

Population estimates for June 2005 show around 264,000 Maori 0-17 year-olds which would put the percentage at 35. But, as Collins points out, there was some double-counting in the Census which, in turn, is used as a base for further estimates.

In 2001 it amounted to 130,000 children being counted twice. So who knows what the true percentage is. Here-in lies the problem of counting people in more than one ethnic group.

Which is also one of the reasons I oppose the statistical concept of two-home children. More double counting, more vagueness. Probably the best we can say currently is that between one in two and one in three Maori children are being raised on a benefit.