Repetition is not confirmation

And, like clockwork, we have the Opposition's response to the Social Report, with a press release from Judith Collins claiming that confirms more New Zealanders are living in severe hardship:

The report says that "between 2000 and 2004, there was an increase of 3 percentage points in the proportion of the population experiencing severe hardship".

Last month, the New Zealand Living Standards report found that 8% of New Zealanders are living in severe hardship. Most are beneficiaries with children.

After the release of the Living Standards report, Health Minister Pete Hodgson dismissed it in Parliament: "Unlike the New Zealand Living Standards 2004 report, which is something of an attitudinal survey, the social report is hard data".

"Well, here is that hard data," says Ms Collins.

All very well, except for one thing: it's the same data. The section on "population with low living standards" is simply a restatement of the findings of New Zealand Living Standards 2004. Repetition is not confirmation in any sense of the word.

This is par for the course for Collins; in 2004 she responded to that year's Social Report by saying that it showed no improvement in adult literacy rates under the Labour government, ignoring the fact that the data in question dated from 1996, and hadn't been remeasured since. At the time, I commented that either she hasn't read the report, or thought that no-one else would, and that neither was a very good look for someone with ministerial aspirations. It seems the same comment applies today...