Sean Broughton: Stats NZ Population and Housing spokesperson on the changes to the Census

It's goodbye to the five-yearly Census from 2030, and hello to a smaller annual survey. 

They're changing things up, instead assessing a smaller chunk of the population yearly. 

Information people have already provided to Government departments will be used to inform the data, and Stats NZ says the changes will help provide more accurate and timely information.  

Population and Housing Statistics spokesperson Sean Broughton told Kerre Woodham the traditional approach to the Census is no longer sustainable.  

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the carry Wood and Morning's podcast from
news Talks hed B.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
So the government's giving the Sensus a major facelift in
a bid to make it future focused and relevant and
presumably to get more people to respond to it. From
twenty thirty, the census information will be released yearly rather
than every five years, which is the case currently. Information
people have already provided to government departments will be used

(00:32):
to inform the data, meaning no post in or online
survey will be needed outside a small yearly survey from
a select group of KIWIS Statistics. New Zealand Population and
Housing Statistics spokesperson Sewan Brughton joins me, now, very good
morning to you.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
More than a carey.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
It's been a bit of a disaster in recent times,
hasn't it in terms of sorry, in terms of people
not filling it in and people not getting census information
and then the data being wrong and that sort of thing.
It needed a facelift.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
That's right. The traditional approach to since this is no
longer sustainable, you have low response rates, you have been
very costly and it's a very I guess, rigid way
of meeting the data needs of different communities across ault
at all.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Is there the ability to share information across government agencies?
You know that would solve a lot of problems in
a lot of areas. I didn't think we were there yet.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
We are part way there. We've we've been researching using
this data that's already collected by different government departments or
administrative data for more than a decade now in the
context of our Integrated Data Infrastructure Research Database. But we
do have more work with government agency to do to

(02:02):
improve the quality and consistency of those ADMIN data collections,
as well as the supply and sharing arrangements. And there's
a chief executive group that has been put in place
to support that those I guess improvements and drive collective
responsibility across government.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
What sort of information will you collect?

Speaker 3 (02:25):
So from the data that's already collected by different departments,
we can measure the population, we can understand attributes about
different groups of people. We've got more work to do
around I guess, counting the number of dwellings and so forth.
But the Census Attribute survey, that the survey mechanism to

(02:46):
support the ADMIN data that we are already collecting. We'll
start with similar questions to what we've seen in the
twenty twenty three census, but it could broaden those out
to be things like, I guess more on housing quality
or life's satisfactions, so understanding people's well being and so forth.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Because what is the census data used for? As I
understood it was to help plan schools, infrastructure, hospitals, that
sort of thing.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
That's right. It really does come back to some of
those key uses around supporting funding decisions for investment and
health sector, education sector, infrastructure. I mean that really speak
to the importance of good quality population statistics.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Some of the questions asked I remember at the time
people were like, why would I need to answer questions
about being trans or not trends.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
That's sexual identity.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
What is the point of asking about that is? You know,
like I'm actually really asking, you know, how does that
inform government agencies in the decision making.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
So a census is, particularly in twenty twenty three, driving
for it to be more inclusive of different communities and
populations like LGBTIQ plus communities, and you're trying to understand
the size of those populations. What I guess their life

(04:24):
experiences or I guess areas to participation in society might
be so you can define, I guess better determine what
policies you need to meet those needs.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Well, they didn't really ask that. It was more sort
of what what is your sexual identity? And your lived
experience didn't come into it. I mean, I what. I
don't see how the data could then be used to
help communities like that.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
So I think it's both census census start as your
starting points for identifying those populations and the size of them,
and then you can do follow up surveys on the
back of sensors to dig into some of those life
experiences and so forth, like our disability community for a
disability survey that we do at present and run for

(05:14):
the first time in ten years last year, right, or
a Mali social survey to Koupinger and the like. Right.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
So you use the basis of the numbers you collate
on the on the population to inform the decision of
whether to do a survey or how to do a survey?

Speaker 3 (05:31):
How to do a survey? Yes?

Speaker 1 (05:33):
Right?

Speaker 2 (05:34):
So a textas says I'm not doing the census again,
not after they sold the data. Was the data sold?

Speaker 3 (05:45):
Not to my knowledge?

Speaker 1 (05:46):
Not?

Speaker 4 (05:46):
No, No, I wasn't aware of that either, which doesn't
mean what didn't happen, But I certainly don't recall a
story coming up of shock horror when it comes to
doing the center, who are the select group of kiwis?

Speaker 3 (06:03):
So when we're talking about the are they to support
our administrative data collection? We're talking about a representative sample
of New Zealanders right across the country, and so you're
trying to ensure that that sample is designed to reflect
different communities that we observe. I think the third component

(06:28):
part of this modernized approach to census, the tailored approaches,
does allow you to follow up with specific communities, be
that your disability communities or working with Ereimori partners, So
it's both of those.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
How do you rebuild the trust of sectors of the
population whose trust was shaken in government and in authority?
It wasn't didn't happen overnight, but it's been built brewing
for some time and probably reached a peak during the
COVID years. How do you rebuild faith and trust in
government institutions? Giving data is quite giving personal information to

(07:11):
a government agency. It's something that we used to do
without a second thought. Now plenty of people are having thoughts.

Speaker 3 (07:19):
It doesn't matter if it's administrative data or survey data.
It's still, as you say, data about people, and the
privacy and protection of that is paramount. We're guided in
the first instance by the Privacy Act and the Data
and Statistics Act, and then we've got really, I guess,
rigorous processes around our data management practices, our privacy security,

(07:42):
confidentiality rules, and ensuring that what we do with data
collection or otherwise is done ethically as well. And I
think rebuilding trust in statsin z as an institution comes
by way of collaborating in a really open way with

(08:02):
Ei Maori partners with these smaller population groups. Be transparent
with the data sources that we're collecting, how we're using
that data, and then working through ways to publish that
in partnership with them too.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
All right, thank you very much for your time. Seawan
Broughton is the Population and Housing Statistics spokesperson.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
For more from carry Wood and Mornings, listen live to
News Talks a B from nine am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.