Kerre Woodham: Those who don't fill out a Census will get no sympathy in five years' time

Looks like Census 2023 is another failure.

Stats New Zealand is not on track to achieve its target of getting responses from 90 percent of the population.

Still time, but it seems unlikely to meet that target, despite protestations from the Minister of Statistics Deborah Russell that it's still early days.

The low return rate has nothing to do with the effects of Cyclone Gabriel, most of the unreturned forms are from major cities. And the failure of 2023 aligns with the failure of the 2018 Census, where response rates were even worse.

They fell to just 86 per cent, even worse for Maori and Pacifica, with 65 and 63 per cent return rates respectively.

You would have thought they would have learned lessons from the past, and they did, a bit.

There was a review into the 2018 Census and it found that there was too much focus on a digital-first approach. That focus led to too little attention to on-the-ground requirements to get the Census done. Basically, people knocking on doors and handing over papers and then going to collect them.

I absolutely guarantee you could put the lack of response down to distrust of the Government and suspicion around how the information will be used.

Dave Letele, who was employed as an ambassador for the Census 2023, said there's a massive distrust between our people and the Government and that's what we need to overcome.

He said a lot of people are wary about sharing their personal information with authorities, but it's not just something you can throw money at to fix, which is quite true.

So there's been the breakdown of trust, there's been suspicion, and I understand that, but by choosing not to participate, the Government is going to have to come up with another way of allocating resources.

How else to do it other than with the Census?

Many of the communities who need schools and hospitals and money to go into community groups and outreach services the most will miss out. Five years from now, when you hear people from communities bemoaning the lack of facilities for their neighbourhoods, I will remember to ask them, or make a note for my successor to ask them, did you fill out your Census?

If you say no, you're getting no sympathy from me.

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