James Shaw and the Census NZ mascot ‘Clueless’.
Government announces $16m for Stats NZ after census woes
Today Stats NZ announced it will begin releasing data from 23 September.
This follows two unprecedented delays, due to a low turnout in which nearly one in seven people did not complete Census 2018.
Statistics Minister James Shaw said it was unlikely Census 2023 could be conducted successfully under the current budget.
“I, as Minister of Statisitcs, and this government are not willing to gamble with the next census which is why the funding announced today for this year’s Budget will help to get ahead of the process to ensure the next census runs more smoothly and delivers the outcomes New Zealanders expect and deserve,” he said.
“The previous National-led government decided to shift the Census to a mostly online survey and, at the same time, directed Stats NZ to cut costs over two census cycles.
“Stats NZ has now confirmed it will provide reliable, quality 2018 census data to calculate how many electorates will be needed for next year’s General Election and to revise electorate boundaries where necessary,” Mr Shaw said.
He said Stats had to delay other work and re-allocate funds to get its data up to scratch and the resulting $5.76m shortfall will be covered in this year’s Budget.
“There’s also Budget approval this year of $10.36 million to enable Stats NZ to get ahead of the next census. The money will develop the business case for the 2023 Census and start development work on it.”
Census fuck up and no one is to blame.
State Housing meth hysteria and no one is to blame.
Mass surveillance lies and no one is to blame.
Skyrocketing suicide rates in a dysfunctional mental health service and no one is to blame.
Dozens and dozens of needless deaths from synthetic cannabis and no one is to blame.
When do Wellington bureaucrats ever get held to account?
Sure, the last National Government are to blame for these brainfart policies in the first place, but where were the reports from public officials warning of the clusterfucks the policy was creating?
We all know what happened here, Stats NZ wanted a cool online census so they could get down with the cool kids while forgetting most NZers resent the intrusion into their lives and sure as Christ didn’t trust an online system in the post-Snowden world.
The only reason you fill in the forms is because some nice person turns up on your doorstep insisting on it and most Kiwi’s are too intrinsically laid back to cause a fuss. However if no one turns up, well you can go fuck yourself, 700 000 won’t bother filling it in.
This fiasco, like so many other public service fiascos, are never anyones fault and no one ever gets held to account while the wider public suffer their public service negligence and incompetence.
Martyn,
James Shaw is not a very clever politician is he?
He sends ‘vague messages’ to all on every subject he is involved with.
We also see this on the “zero carbon bill” we are still awaiting from his Party, – as it is now very long overdue.
It is very weird! Why is he an apologist for it?
….especially as John Key National set that flawed census process up in the first place ….to be non census
….imo to hide what has been really going on in New Zealand and which would have been show up in a properly conducted census
the Labour Coalition should be sheeting it home to Nactional
Its clear there was a deliberate strategy. Firstly to white wash the questions to remove statistics that could be used to track poverty and inequality. Secondly, it was not indicated anywhere on the material we received via post that you could request forms and complete the census manually. All of the advertising reinforced this by not mentioning a manual option. Again, who is going to be impacted by this? Those without Internet or the ability to travel to a library to fill out the online census. Like much of National policy, plausible deniability with malicious intent.
They are only held to account on the gallows; Xiriously
+1
“The only reason you fill in the forms is because some nice person turns up on your doorstep insisting on it and most Kiwi’s are too intrinsically laid back to cause a fuss.”
+2
“most NZers resent the intrusion into their lives and sure as Christ didn’t trust an online system in the post-Snowden world.”
The third reason is that many people, 15% or more are living in NZ without actually being able to understand the language or have any interest in learning it or being involved in NZ culture. NZ is just a place to get resources from or hide resources in, with little to zero interest in NZ. And therefore there is actually motivation NOT to fill in the census and have that identified.
And the fourth thing, is that if people could actually work out how much of a demographic and asset change there has been in NZ over the past few years there may have been an uproar that might have effected the status quo and alerted the bovine politicians on what it going on.
The pro Neoliberals, Rogernoms, Pro Asia types and establishment benefiting financially from that, do not want the truth to be told.
More interesting is what is happening to NZ’s largest business in particular land and agribusiness, now fully or part owned by Asian firms in many cases..
Tegal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tegel_Foods
Wrightsons
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PGG_Wrightson
(They have already breached the ‘good character’ on that one)
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/111459615/high-court-fines-agria-220000-for-breaching-good-character-test
Comvita
https://www.marketscreener.com/COMVITA-LTD-6497045/company/
A farmer was telling me, that for example you now can’t get fence posts in NZ there is a nation wide shortage… we are a forestry and major Agi exporter who now can no longer function property domestically on stock control while having record exports.
Just wait till the food shortages and food scandals hit (they are already here), we already are paying a fortune for building supplies in construction that NZ produces the raw materials of and now, food and agri products will spiral out of control of local wages and incomes..
NZ is selling off the family silver and does have any clues about that that will eventually mean for the average NZ’er going forward as we go into bizarre pricing and shortages of materials (common in Asia and the third world or communist countries) that mean many NZ farms will start going out of business….and can be snapped up cheap by the ones creating the disruption.
+100 SAVENZ….and where is the Coalition Government on this!?
( instead James Shaw, Greens , is an apologist for the flawed non Census!)
They should also be conducting another Census immediately…. a REAL Census!
And then they should be jumping up and down and exposing with real statistics what happened in the nine years of John Key Nactional Government !
How else can they make REAL Public Policy…except on Real statistics ?
Where is Asia? I just got out the little red book (my ancient school atlas) and couldn’t find a country called Asia anywhere.
The mere fact that you are trying to coagulate a sizeable chunk of the world and its people into one amorphous mob aka the dreaded ‘other’ tells us everything we need to know about your tendentious worldview.
Especially since by far the majority of Aotearoa’s resources reside within the clammy grasp of ‘europeans’.
Asia is a continent DEBSISDEAD.
And the NZ government tired of the European and Pacific ways of democracy and socialism have decided quite some time ago, that NZ should be part of Asia, which will also eventually mean if it continues on the current trajectory, no social welfare and increased corruption as part of business and the political landscape here in NZ.
You can already buy a place on the list MP of the Natz with $100k donation. So cheap! And park your cash in the zero percent tax havens if you are non resident.
It is like a distant memory when Taito Field was put in prison for immigration and labour scams. Now cheap labour and fake immigration is the norm in NZ and an expected part of business here! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taito_Phillip_Field
Superannuation is not really affordable when you overload the system with people who have not paid into the scheme in the form of life long taxes. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1110/S00572/grey-power-warns-of-impact-of-high-immigration-rates.htm
Nor is it looking good for our ‘free’ health care, but great for private health care! https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/315435/migrants'-parents-cost-nz-'tens-of-millions‘
NZ generosity extends to get free health and disability care with every 2 year work visa here, given out like lollies for low end jobs and fake degrees, with fake paperwork that they can support themselves! https://www.health.govt.nz/new-zealand-health-system/eligibility-publicly-funded-health-services/guide-eligibility-publicly-funded-health-services/work-visa-holder-eligible-be-nz-two-years-or-more
kids health care also free if you come to NZ as is education for the most part.. https://www.health.govt.nz/new-zealand-health-system/eligibility-publicly-funded-health-services/guide-eligibility-publicly-funded-health-services/people-aged-17-years-or-younger
For the wokies, ever noticed, how it is the Pacific Islanders who get in prison for immigration scams and people trafficking? If you are Asian and get caught with corruption, frauds and immigration scams, you just get off, or a small fine! We don’t want to upset the big fish after all, it’s all about the right encouragement to business here!
At the same time, supporting locking up in jail as many Maori as they can muster up and stop from voting.
Now we have kids stealing milk and nappies at Dairies.
If you have a look at the rate of change in NZ, in particular the cost of living like power and water and accomodation and basic materials you tend to find at the end of it, a privatisation model or a consumer model.
This has to rely on immigration to function as otherwise in a democratic country you can’t force the people to work or lower and lower wages.
Immigration also solves the issues of consumers being able to afford goods and services on the lower wages by getting new money in. So privatisation relies on immigration and ‘new money’ and cheap labour, to function for the ponzi.
Maybe you have not noticed there is an increases in poverty in NZ with our wonderful approaches over the last decades?
The fastest growing group in poverty is actually pakeha families with kids on wages. Although ‘Europeans’ may have a hold on much of NZ assets, they might not be based in NZ, aka banks are mostly Australian and owned by shareholders from around the world.
But of course the wokies seem to want their cake and eat it too, and have masses of immigration that somehow in their eyes, has nothing to do with more people in poverty here, increased corruption, increased competition for crap jobs on low wages, more drugs and social costs of those drugs, shortages of basics like housing and fence posts and milk powder and high costs of fish, meat, water and milk, in a country that produces the raw materials for all of the above.
But nothing to do with (sarcasm) the policies of countries that both the neoliberals and wokies now seek to emulate, that have increased inequality and poverty and corruption and less human rights than the European countries but are apparently better in the wokies eyes as a system of governance and ownership here!
Asia is not a continent, it is the name euros gave a place that stretches from Turkey to Japan comprising quite a few continents, hundreds of languages and cultures whose only apparent commonality is their unwhiteness. Use of ‘Asians’ as a collective noun is lazy, inaccurate and 100% as a means to describe any group of people much less one as diverse as the cultures encompassed by ‘Asia’.
You whine about immigration a problem I am concerned about but seem to ignore that the largest group of migrants into Aotearoa in the last two decades are euros either directly from europe (including england natch) or indirectly via South Africa, Canada and the US.
Go for a drive around Auckland’s east Coast Bays then up into Albany where most of Auckland’s residential construction over the last 40 years has happened; thousands of great houses just right for the poor buggers holding down two jobs yet unable to even secure a rental- stop and shop – you won’t hear a kiwi accent anywhere. You will hear jaapie galore, along with Scunthorpe, Scots, Russkie, french and Irish, american Canadian and Hungarian.
Your claim that “The fastest growing group in poverty is actually pakeha families with kids on wages” is laughable maybe more are falling into poverty now, but that is definitely ‘juking the stats’ since bulk Tangata Whenua and Pacific people have been living in poverty since forever.
Your pitiful posts are the reason why it is impossible to get any of Aotearoa’s political organisations to get real with the problems immigration has caused us, it is simply too easy to brand people opposed to further immigration as racist.
This I suspect, was the neoliberal Winston Peters’ plan right from the get go. I dunno if you forgot or it was before you arrived, but the initial NZ First spokesperson on Immigration was a two pound pom – er sorry migrant from england.
In fact the issue reminds me most of Brexit where genuine issues many people are concerned about, E.G. the fact the French State is a big shareholder in Britain’s railway network – under EU rules that is legal, but it is against EU rules for Mr Corbyn to renationalise the railways – something which badly needs to happen, remains buried in the media.
There are many good reasons why any country would wish to leave the EU, namely it is run by unelected neolib fucktards ( the EU model was adopted by Rodney Hide for the ‘super city’ – have elections but remove all decision making power from the councillors/MEPs & give that to unelected ‘commissioners’ on loan from the corporate world).
In both instances ignorant racist drop kicks have smothered the real debate with jingoistic, racist trash, thereby making change next to impossible since most decent, normal human beings who live outside the US want nothing to do with institutionalised racism.
As usual, a rant with accusations but zero content. What is your solution DEBSISDEAD? You like many keyboard warriors get their kicks from disagreeing but have zero content of your own solution.
People with zero practical reality or solutions are part of the problem because immigration is not racism. Immigration has become a wokie discourse about racism due to neoliberals and wokies using that to justify immigration Ponzi which is increasing poverty in NZ for many existing people living here and the slow down to normal levels would help halt neoliberalism in NZ…
P.s. You might find this illuminating, as you seem, (and many like you) only like to address poverty if it fits your own prejudices and interests and therefore your opinion is helping the status quo keep poverty increasing in NZ and immigration and ponzi’s off that rife in this country.
https://www.pundit.co.nz/content/invisible-children
“Even today, you will find people who focus their poverty discussions on beneficiaries, ethnic minorities, single-parent households, and those in rental accommodation. The research evidence points to the most common household in poverty is a Pakeha couple with children living in their own house (with a mortgage) and being dependent upon wages That is because the group is the largest, so even if its poverty rate is lower than average, there are more poor.”
DEBSISDEAD – yes English immigration was high in previous decades, but it hasn’t been the largest immigrant group for quite a while – that’s been ‘asian’ according to Immigration NZ stats. Some stats now show around one third of Auckland population are asian immigrants. And yes, that’s an old Euro centric term but in common usage now is assumed to mean of south east asian origin including China and India.
Such high levels of immigration from these countries has also caused structural changes in NZ culture – people from these countries arguably have quite different values to existing NZ citizens e.g. they don’t have a welfare state, no history of egalitarianism, and don’t have democracy.
For political and cultural-elite reasons we’ve basically been running a giant immigration driven experiment, with no debate, no assessment of the changes it has induced (housing, traffic etc), and all just so that Key’s government could be propped by right-leaning immigrants and juiced property values from GDP inflation (but not productivity).
Instead of woke-trashing well-researched commentators like the always excellent SaveNZ, please provide some real debate.
+100 SAVENZ…very well said !….and as always you are very well researched and provide links to back up your statements and arguments
( I just wish the Government would take your advise )
you are one of the best if not the best commentators on this site imo …and it makes me keep coming back here
I speak as someone with both Maori ( an ancestor signed the Treaty)and early settler Pakeha ancestry( from the 1800s)and one who values our New Zealand heritage …inwhich the early settlers valued egalitarianism and tried to implement a fair and just society for both Maori and Pakeha….education, health , housing, employment, social welfare….
(this has been eroded in recent years, particularly under the John Key Government)
Sure early New Zealand was not perfect !…and sure there were rogues!…and wars…and there was theft….but largely we should as New Zealanders be proud of our socialist egalitarian based country, culture and heritage….and continue to fight for It
….and not let envious newcomers with a wokie globalist agenda and with a sense of entitlement dis New Zealand and New Zealanders ….in order to rort it and try and guilt trip and trash what we have and who we are…
(they often come from overpopulated countries where human rights, especially womens rights are abysmal)
23 million missing girls….how females are not valued in Asia….given that New Zealand women Maori and Pakeha have a New Zealand culture of valuing women and have fought long and hard for equal rights against the Catholic Church ….this is disturbing
Do we want more immigration of males from these countries?
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2199874-sex-selective-abortions-may-have-stopped-the-birth-of-23-million-girls/
A huge analysis of worldwide population data suggests sex-selective abortions have led to at least 23 million fewer girls being born. The majority of these “missing” girls are in China and India.
Many societies value sons over daughters. As people around the world increasingly have fewer children, there has been a rise in families choosing to abort female fetuses in an effort to have at least one son…
James Shaw is the Mr Bean of the Bean Counter Green Party, and a Mr Bean in Parliament.
At Shaw made the right choice with Labour to get the Natz out, though.
Individually the Greens are probably all great people, but together they are a mess and too many got on the party list with little work or commitment to the Green causes but by being good looking in Metro spreads. That’s the problem!
+100 SAVENZ
I worked for Stats NZ in the period they built that glass building on Wellington’s wharfside destroyed by the Kaikoura earthquake. The exodus from Molesworth St disturbed.
The ordinary human fallibilities, not least the underpayment of those who interacted with the public while they built that cathedral.
What’s worse, the fierce wind of business-heads (my day) or the degeneracy of bureaucracy left to itself? Certainly, belief is needed. The idea of good.
Part of neoliberalism is to take everybody’s budget and instead of spending it on what every they are supposed to be doing, it is taken away to be used for construction or marketing from big corporations.
Same with education and hospitals.
In the Middlemore hospital case the managers spent millions building a conference centre at Middlemore, while the kids ward had sewerage and mould in the wards.
This is because they met the Natz ideology, and was able to creatively (some might say illegal) create an accounting case and redirect a heap of money which would be better spent on the sick and growing population of sick in Auckland, into jobs for people doing nothing to do with the sick.
Under that ideology, the point of hospitals to cure sick people was considered ‘a waste of money’ and didn’t qualify for any new money for more doctors and nurses and modern buildings for the sick, but slush fund spending on rubbish projects.
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