Ginny blames baby murders on the Government

Radio NZ reports:

Labour’s spokesperson for prevention of family and sexual violence, Ginny Andersen, said the death of two children in the first week of this year is a reminder that New Zealand needs to closely look at frontline services for vulnerable families.

Two men are in custody facing murder charges in separate cases – the death of a child in Hamilton and another child in Auckland. …

She said the government’s cuts to frontline social services are very concerning, leaving providers struggling and vulnerable families facing the consequences.

“Frontline service providers warned of the safety risks if that funding was cut, and we’ve seen more than 330 services – ones like Family Start and women support, have those cuts that directly impact upon their service delivery,” she said.

Last August, Oranga Tamariki discontinued funding to 190 service providers, saying they were underperforming or operating at a surplus. Another 142 providers had their funding reduced.

Andersen said the cuts were risking the safety of whānau.

“This government has seen police step back from family violence, while also at the same time, cutting frontline services, and so we’re going to see some ramifications from those cuts, and I sincerely hope that it’s not more fatalities,” she said.

So in Hamilton a 34 year old man stabs a woman, child and baby and it is the fault of the Government.

Likewise the alleged murder of a child in south Auckland is also the fault of the Government, according to Labour.

I’m not even sure where to start with this disgusting attack. Firstly politicians should be very very careful about linking any homicide or murder to government policy or action unless there is very clear link such as a failure by government agencies or a law change.

Secondly if one is going to try and go down the path of blaming the government for homicides, well let’s look at the data. From 2009 to 2017 there was an average of 46 homicides a year. From 2018 got 2022 there was an average of 71. So 53% higher than under the previous Government. Even if you remove the victims of the mosque massacre from the data, it is an average of 61 compared to 46.

But this is all homicides. How about just stuff involving kids. Well I can’t find a data series for child homicides, but the Police do have data back to 2014 for all offences by age. We can assume almost all offences against under five year olds is violence. So what does that data say.

From 2014 to 2017, there were 1182 victims aged under five, or 394 a year. From 2017 to 2023, there were 7,248 victims aged under five, or 1,208 a year.