Heterosexual marriages are crumbling in ever-increasing numbers, and once again its time for the moral right to blame the gay parents, whose numbers have nearly doubled in the past five years, according to new Statistics New Zealand research. In addition to rising heterosexual divorce rates, Families Commission figures show nearly half of Kiwi mothers would be solo parents at some stage before they turned 50, and one in five would live in a step-family. Increasing numbers of defacto and gay couples are parenting. Maxim Institute director Bruce Logan believes these trends are responsible for New Zealand's high child abuse and domestic violence statistics. Families Comissioner Rajen Prasad and former Children's Commissioner Roger McClay both denounced the moral panic, with McClay saying changing family structures were not to blame for child maltreatment. "It's not to do with the make-up of those families, it's the people within those families,” he said. Both men said families should be defined by their functions, not their form.