Just as TDB predicted, the online Census was a total failure…
The 2018 Census had the lowest response in more than 50 years – now a team is looking for answers.
Statistics NZ had urged Kiwis to complete their census online in 2018, however one in ten people didn’t respond, a drop of five per cent from the last census that concerned Statistics Minister James Shaw.
…let’s remember this was a cost cutting measure to try and make it cheaper, but without a person coming to your door and actually identifying you and prompting you to fill the form in, a lot of NZers didn’t bother.
Only a fool would fill out a census online in the post-Snowden world where everything can be hacked. The less the Government knows about you, the better.
The greatest joke is how the Government are continuing to claim this was a great triumph…
When Stuff asked Stats NZ in July what went wrong, it did not answer the question but instead said: “We’re pleased with the online response and performance of the online system for 2018 census. Eighty two per cent of responses received were online which surpasses our target of 70 per cent.”
…when these Wellington bureaucrats force online voting, it will be a similar failure.
Poor people without access to the internet, crap planning and shoddy follow through mixed with a contempt for giving the Government information that can be hacked all contributed to this fiasco.
Wellington bureaucrats will get away with the incompetence and no lessons will be learned.
So how do Stats NZ intend to recover from this self inflicted fuck up? Why the good old Compulsory Survey…
Take this survey, or else – Stats NZ threatens busy woman with prosecution
A Statistics New Zealand employee appears to have threatened a Hamilton woman with prosecution for not filling out a survey.The woman’s partner, who asked to remain anonymous, posted a photo of the threat on Facebook.
“This is a compulsory govt survey. I am the local area leader for Stats NZ and we will pursue prosecution if you fail to comply,” the note reads.
“We are somewhat dismayed at you refusing to talk to [us].”
The threat was scrawled on a note bearing an official Statistics NZ letterhead. The pre-printed message reads: “You have been selected to participate in a Statistics New Zealand survey. Sorry I missed you when I called today.”
..that’s right, Stats NZ will threaten randomly selected families to fill out their compulsory survey or else risk prosecution so they can fill in the enormous gaps left by their online abortion.
This entire fiasco could have been prevented if only they had stuck to the system NZers trusted.
…a deliberate failure on the part of the Nact government imo
….to hide the facts..
eg about overseas NZ house ownership
It’s so enjoying when people don’t admit when they’re wrong isn’t it?
The problem is when goin after 50/50 policies all the time only 50% of them actually perform. Yes National are shit but I’d just cation restraint about using them as a punching bag all the time.
Better to just fess up and improvise.
The day will come where Central Government will follow the example of Auckland Council, and set up a self selecting panel of ‘feed back providers’ on policy and particular topics and issues.
Auckland Council uses a ‘People’s Panel’ for getting feed back and they then present it as the voice of Aucklanders, even though such surveys usually only include a few hundred, at best a few thousand participants. It is not really representative of all Aucklanders, but they do not care that much, as it serves their interests.
They use that to justify their Council initiated new policies and planning, and as most of those that participate do already have an interest in Council proposals, decisions, actions and affairs, and are generally rather supportive of Council, it serves Auckland Council to get this ‘feed back’, as it is useful to justify the things they want to do.
A bit like hiring your own cheer leaders to get yourself supported, and sadly few have challenged Auckland Council on this kind of modus operandi, which is not all that inclusive and representative, I fear.
https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/have-your-say/have-your-say-through-peoples-panel/Pages/what-is-the-peoples-panel.aspx
The ‘democracy’ of the future, self selecting, limited in scope, but good enough to present to the public, who are mostly asleep at the wheel anyway, or too busy with day to day survival.
Maybe our own electricity meters are being hacked too?
Bloody disgusting this is!!!!!!
Electricity Authority heads should now roll over this!!!!!!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/107733440/faulty-smart-meter-to-blame-for-1100-power-bill
Bradley Tuhi had monthly power bills of more than $1000, but there was no obvious reason why.
Genesis Energy has admitted a faulty power meter is to blame for a Christchurch man receiving exorbitant electricity bills for 12 months.
Bradley Tuhi’s monthly power bill peaked at $1105 in July, yet at the time Genesis Energy failed to accept it could be at fault.
Tuhi spent months trying to convince Genesis Energy it was not possible for him, his wife and step son to consume that much electricity at their fully-insulated, double-glazed, 10-year-old Governors Bay home that was heated using gas.
Nice that you guys can be sooo smug with the I told you so! Have you thought this was a deliberate policy as a large amount of funding policy is based on statistical data. If the West Coast shows that there are less people then the health funding, the roading funding, the educational funding can be reduced! If the number of invisible people increase, the funding is not allocated to their area, but they still use the services so while you are smirking about the census not working it will take longer for you to access health care, your children will be in larger classes and those providers will have to do more for less!
When the census was being conducted the fact that you could opt to fill it in manually (the old way) was not advertised. Older people I spoke to were upset that they weren’t being given the option. Only after the census had finished did stats NZ start talking about the manual option being available. It had obviously been decided that not publicizing the manual form would lead to a better uptake of online responses. Given they were aiming for 70% online take-up, clearly they were expecting some manual responses. They had engaged field workers as in the past. It would be interesting to see if that is the main reason for the collapse.
Surely a better option would have been to run both systems in tandem initially, but of course that wouldn’t have saved money. A lot of people also seemed to think that the questions had been gutted to avoid awkward statistics disproving the rockstar economy.
As others have stated the real damage here is that those on the fringes are the most likely to be underrepresented in both the census responses and the funding based on those responses.
Good point Lucy.
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