Gordon Campbell On The Coalition's Peddling Of Bad News As Good News
At what point does a Cabinet minister distorting the statistics on issues in their portfolio amount to a sackable offence?
Children's Minister Karen Chhour was publicly celebrating a 14% drop in reported harm at Youth Justice and Care and Prevention residences, attributing it to "improved training recruitment and leadership" at Oranga Tamariki, and better induction schemes for staff.
However, it has been revealed that this improvement only involved three children, with 115 reported cases of harm in OT managed facilities last year, down from 118 the year before.
This still amounts to! 22.8% of the total population of children living in such residences, a disturbing figure.
that 115 figure still amounted to a disturbing 22.8% of the total population of the children living in such residences.
Author's summary: Minister distorts statistics on child harm reduction.