Traditional Census scrapped as Government moves to new data collection approach
The days of trying to get every New Zealander to fill out a Census form are over.
Minister of Statistics Dr Shane Reti announced today that Stats NZ will move to an admin-data-first Census.
This means using data the Government has already collected when trying to assemble datasets that include every New Zealanders.
For example, instead of asking your income on a Census form, Stats NZ could ask Inland Revenue how much you earn.
Reti also announced that from 2027, Stats NZ will deliver monthly, rather than quarterly, inflation figures.
We’ve already seen this game from this Government.
Hide, redefine, move thresholds.
They did it with Emergency Housing.
They changed the thresholds and kicked everyone out who didn’t meet the new definitions and hid the impact on homelessness.
They did it to Pay Parity by changing thresholds to destroy all those workers wage aspirations and they are busily redefining new sanctions for those on welfare.
Every stage they gloss over the pain, hide the impact of their draconian policy and whitewash everything.
That is why the Census is being axed, to hide the bleeding gums of our inequality and gloss over our poverty pain.
Once upon a time an Aunty would knock on your door and keep knocking until you filled out your census form. They were smart Aunties and they knew how to make sure you did it.
That was expensive and it became more difficult as social cohesion imploded over Covid.
The great idea the boffins came up with was doing it all online and the moment that Aunty wasn’t knocking on your door to ensure you filled out your Census form, the rest of us went, ‘stuff it’ because we were sick of having the state in our faces.
Rather then rebuild, rather than spend the amount needed to fix it, this cost cutting Government have decided to dump it altogether in favour of other state agents to fill in the details themselves.
This will leave all those who strive to have nothing to do with those existing state agents (including those the State is actively throwing off welfare and state houses) with zero representation.
This will see vast pockets of the underclass with no representative data to provide the infrastructural planning that the census builds.
This move will undercount the poverty and build vast inequalities based on that undercount.
We will gloss over the wounds of our poverty with a cost saving brainfart.
This is what we is now. This is what we have become.
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The last census was a fucking disaster, green leader Shaw in charge, utter waste of time and money…..this approach may not be ideal but better than throwing money at it and crossing fingers that people complete it (which a section of society never will…but extra money thrown at them to pleeeease fill in the census, pretty please!)
Well said I’m right the last 2 census have been a disaster. I know of a few people who did not comply and nothing happened to them . The money saved can be spent on more worthwhile projects .
Since covid many have been disconnected with authority and we need to gain or knowledge of the population from information we already have . IRD,medical, government depts across the board,local authorities all have details and it will be good if all the people can work together.
Silly uneducated comments from both of you.
Were is your prove please give examples of how good the present system is .
Where is your proof, you’ve offered an opinion. No facts provided by you Trev and “I know a few people” is fucking hilarious.
Martyn is correct, this is about hiding data and without data this CoC can’t be held accountable.
Im right – I stopped filling it in as a protest against some of the questions being asked, and policies that reduce my access to Government Services based on Census data.
Reti was demoted because of his abject failure in health( it hasn’t improved under boy Wonder). Now he’s in charge of the worst and most corrupt CoC in history. Hiding data to hide the atrocities this CoC has created isn’t democratic, it’s simply corrupt. Where will the savings from the census go to now, Farmers, Business, right wing media like the Herald, Newstalk ZB shill or maybe saved until the next election tax bribe that like the last one went nowhere.
Not sure what the problem is, the new approach will be faster, have far more coverage and much more accurate
It’s a completely sensible move, to interpret otherwise is purely political.
Of course how unsensible to think politicians don’t make political moves
It’s a completely irresponsible move, to interpret otherwise is purely political.
That’s what they said about the armament used on Trump.
I dare say the ability to hide from the public the real extent of mass immigration is also a factor in this decision .
Fred Evans – Agreed…also, many of those new arrivals cannot/will not fill in the Census.
I attended a lecture by Len Cook a few years ago.
Len Cook was head of statistics New Zealand.
He spoke of the way past governments used statistical information to guide policy. For example, increasing numbers of unmarried mothers led to the Domestic Purposes Benefit to enable women to independently raise their children. State housing, school and hospital construction provided on a basis of need.
He hinted that, about the time he resigned, there was a change in this.
National Party politicians said which statistics they wanted and implied it was his job to provide them.
What will happen with no census and administrators tasked with finding statistical information that is acceptable to Governments which want to cut public spending?
stevie – The flip side of Len’s statement is that certain groups can lose access to Government Services based on Census data.
And governments have full control of how they release data, that is dangerous.
National are Squeaky Clean – 100% correct
The suspicion must be that this government is discontinuing the census so that they can implement any mad, extremist economic ideas fed to them by the NZ Initiative, without the harm these ideas cause ever being fully understood. That’s a justified suspicion given their record, and if the alternatives for data-gathering they are proposing turn out to be inadequate, then it will be correct.
Yes, something will fill the vacuum.
What’s that saying It is very hard to get a change in opinion or decision from someone whose salary depends upon retaining that thing.’ So set up a belief on something, with the stats to back it, and then pour concrete on the status quo..quo..quo….
Census response rates have been declining for decades. And in a time of relatively rapid demographic change, it’s verging on the foolhardy to rely on an almost-instantly-out-of-date five-yearly snapshot.
New Zealand needs to urgently update and upgrade it’s administrative and bureaucratic infrastructure to allow the collection and analysis of population data to occur in near-real time.
Caveat emptor!
There’s very little real absolute poverty in New Zealand, if any, there is relative poverty. Relative poverty and inequality in itself though leads to social friction, which is not good.
But in absolute terms there is no poverty.
You only have to travel to most parts of the Pacific, Africa, South America, Asia, and parts of Eastern Europe to understand this.
You only have to travel off the main tourist routes in NZ to find the poverty you cant accept is rising in NZ.Take a drive around rural Northland or the king country and you will soon find it sitting right beside the the flash homes of the well off .Take a drive out of Te Kuiti along Rangitoto road and after a couple of km you will come across shanty canvas living arrangements amongst the gorse .
Take a close look at those poor countries you mention and you will see NZ in 20 years time .Note that in all of those countries the 1% control the money and live in gold plated homes while the rest live in mud huts or have no home at all .We have a growing number of grey nomads in NZ now as they are forced to sell the family home and buy a caravan and live on the road because it is too expensive to keep the family home .These nomads are also forced to compete for places to park up with the million tourists Luxon wants to flood the country with .My brother is a part time nomad and get pissed off when he has to stand in a line for 20 minutes ,with rude people rom the UK and USA just to get a coffee .
” This move will undercount the poverty and build vast inequalities based on that undercount ”
Bomber the guardians of the oligarchy National and Labour both hide the worst numbers that are in evidence out here if they dared to look but wouldn’t want to see the outcomes of their adherence to unregulated free market policies.
The last government I remember played the same fiddle with official stats particularly child poverty figures that Jacinda was apparently responsible for doing something , anything to confront what was then an appalling situation under the shysters brighter future.
Along with the MSM who also now fail to report the reality of life for many the coverup is complete.
Bleeding gums – is that why Dr Shane Reti is on the job?
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2506/S00098/modernising-new-zealands-data-system.htm
“People’s information needs are changing and today’s announcements ensure we keep delivering data that improves lives today and for generations to come,” Acting Stats NZ Chief Executive and Government Statistician Mary Craig said….
“As New Zealand faces widespread and long-term social, economic, environmental, and technological change, people’s need for information is growing exponentially.
“These changes will help ensure Stats NZ continues to adapt and provide high-quality information that supports New Zealand’s economic and social wellbeing,” Craig said…
“From 2030, key New Zealand census data and statistics will be produced every year, in a cost-effective and sustainable way.
“By tapping into information New Zealanders have already provided, we will deliver more relevant, useful, and timely data to help inform quality planning and decision making.”
Surveys will continue to play an important role, with a new annual survey asking census-type questions of a small percentage of the population….
[Sounds like targeted spying – does Palantir or ? come into this. The main census was supposed to be anonymous. This is more like the cat sitting outside the mouse escape hole in wait.]
When are men going to start requesting equal employment opportunities at upper levels seeing this is the second female statistician? Or is it a job with limited lustre?
Sounds like it will give govts, this sort in particular, the perfect way to hide statistics and then fail to plan for future needs. ‘Oh, nobody told us we’d need these new schools!!!! But it means we still have that money for our donor’s requirements.’
Another excellent example of the Emperor’s New Clothes which is their specialty, after all. They persist with not wanting to be told what is inconvenient and expensive to know and how stupid that always makes them look. As if it were possible for them to look any more stupid.
Also, another example of NZ going backwards.
Forget the people who refuse to fill out the forms, extrapolate.
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