Now we get to the nub of it

The Herald reports, Answers to parliamentary questions from Act MP Heather Roy show 16,173 children received attention from CYF in the year to June 30, up from 10,763 in 2003.

At last someone asks the right question to get the right answer.

Contrast this to the DomPosts's claim which I posted on earlier in the week;



I don't know what the ethnic breakdown is for Heather's answer. But IF it is consistent with notifications and Maori children make up forty six percent, then around 7,500 Maori children came to the attention of CYF in the year to June 2006.

The DomPost reporter has more than trebled the real number. It will have been a mistake but by lunchtime the Prime Minister was commenting on the figure. This is how misconceptions develop a life of their own.

Update; And here the mistake is repeated again in an editorial