Lindsay Mitchell

Last year's report Child Abuse and Family Structure: What is the evidence telling us? largely flew below the radar. But this welcome e...

Latest benefit statistics show painstakingly slow progress on raw numbers. (Note the first MSD chart is mislabeled and should read ...

Many interpretations could be read into the following statistics. For offences to be recorded they have to be discovered for starters. Poli...

That's roughly how often a child is born onto welfare in New Zealand. According to Statistics NZ a child is born every 9 minutes. Accor...

... I 'd be suspicious of the following error made by the Ministry of Social Development. The Ministry now publishes OIA responses . I...

Oxfam are releasing a report this afternoon belly-aching about the disproportionate amount of wealth owned by the richest New Zealanders. An...

Unfortunately time does not permit me to add much commentary but you can go to the link below the graph for more detailed information. Essen...

Poverty in a society is overcome by productivity, and in no other way. There is no political alchemy which can transmute diminished product...

Just home from an Australian sojourn    (during which I managed to read an entire book, a particularly dark Colleen McCullough book), here...

Mark Hubbard has started a new blog about art, films and books which looks promising. The art selection so far has introduced me to unfamil...

The clamp down on public gatherings for the purposes of entertainment is becoming more and more of a problem. Just last month I blogged a...

Two professors wrote a book called  Urban poverty, penal welfare and health inequalities. Here is a brief precis . I note, "New Ze...

 “It is amazing that people who think we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, and medication somehow think that we can afford to pa...

Just before Xmas Stats NZ released a report about people not in the labour force. The graph that caught my eye is below: At  a glance...

It hasn't been the happiest few weeks. We watched our beloved beagle Lexie slowly deteriorate with a suspected brain tumour and eventua...

A reader (?) sent a paper from Cato which essentially argues that beyond a certain level, public assistance creates poverty. That coincides...

Reason.com has yet another example of how the US child care and protection authorities are horribly overreacting. A mom, dad, and their ...

The DomPost today ran a piece which is part of a series entitled, "Private Business, Public Failure: Inside Our Prisons". Someth...

While the internet is a wonderful tool for increasing knowledge it is equally powerful for spreading lies. The World Socialist Website write...