False statistics inundate our lives. They gush like a torrent from government ministries on to front pages the world over. Never, or rarely, is there enough time to check them all.

But one Australian group has checked misleading claims about domestic violence by calling on the Ombudsman to arbitrate. Men’s Health Australia won its case that the claims made by the South Australian government were misleading. Very similar claims are often made in the UK.

The South Australian government had been promoting an anti-domestic violence campaign called “Don’t Cross the Line”, very much like the UN sponsored anti-domestic violence campaigns in other Western countries. Among the claims made by the Office for Women in South Australia - which is part of the Attorney-General’s Department - was that women were far more adversely affected by domestic violence than men.

Men’s Health Australia challenged the claim, and after getting little response, appealed to the the South Australian Ombudsman, Richard Bingham, who found in its favour, concluding that the Office for Women had been guilty of unreasonable and wrong administrative action after failing to correct false and/or misleading information on the campaign website.

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