'Informed debate' is one of those smug phrases used by pseudo academics, students with a smattering of university education who think they are experts, and generally patronising know-it-alls. They typically call for 'informed debates' until the information disproves their position.
Some comments from
The Standard yesterday:
The average length of the DPB recipient is just 3 years.
I am sure that the average length of the DPB recipient would best be measured in metres but if he means the average time spent on the DPB, he is wrong.
FACT
Of
all sole parents who came on to Domestic Purposes Benefit–Sole Parent or the
Emergency Maintenance Allowance in the year to June 1996, just over one-quarter
received main benefits for less than three years out of the following 10. One
in three received main benefits for eight or more years out of the following
10.
So let's break that down as:
26% under 3 years
41% between 3 and 8 years
33% over 8 years
While I cannot ascertain an average from the data, it isn't three.
Then looking back from December 2005 of the 114,000 on the DPB at that point
just
over half had spent at least 80% of the history period [10 years] supported by main
benefits
Burt numbers on DPB have sky rocketed under National.
up from 80 odd thousand to 115,00 is hypocritical and another broken promise.
FACT
At December 2008 there were 100,000 on the DPB; at March 2012 there were 113,000. Not all are single parents but the large majority are. (My guess is the increase would have been worse under Labour but we are dealing with facts here - not supposition.)
That Māori women feature disproportionately in DPB numbers does not necessarily infer a deliberate choice to be on the benefit.
To follow your implication further – while 20-23% of people on the DPB are Māori, 77 – 80% are non-Māori.
FACT
43 percent of DPB recipients are Maori (March 2012)
FACT
45 percent of Maori females aged 20-29 rely on welfare (October 2011)
And just because the irony is breathtaking here is a final comment from a defender of the DPB arguing with a "witless" right-winger (not me):
Facts can’t enter this person’s world-view, and when they do they get
rejected in favour of the familiar ol’ security blankie of prejudice.
So I put up some facts and got told to "piss off".