National to blame for census f laws – PM
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern blamed National for the ongoing census debacle, saying Statistics NZ warned the last government that it needed more money.
At her post-Cabinet press conference yesterday, Ardern said she had been briefed on the origin of the issues affecting the last census, the results of which have been delayed several times while Stats NZ tries to ‘‘backfill’’ gaps in the data.
The delay could impact the 2020 election – with the data needed before new electorate boundaries can be drawn up – as well having effects across the state sector.
Census 2018 took place roughly six months after Labour came into power.
‘‘The decision to go towards a mostly-digital 2018 census was made in 2014,’’ Ardern said.
‘‘There was an expectation on Statistics NZ . . . to reduce costs by 5 per cent over two full census cycles.
‘‘That was at the same time that Stats NZ . . . advised that they would need an increase in support over a five-year period in order to do their jobs properly.’’
She said it was ‘‘pretty rich’’ for National to ‘‘try and place blame when, ultimately, they were making funding decisions that had a pretty big impact on the census’’.
Ardern said making the census ‘‘digital-first’’ was not necessarily the wrong decision but doing so without the proper support was.
National’s state services spokesman, Nick Smith, pushed back on the description of a funding pullback, saying Census 2018 was ‘‘generously funded’’ with a budget 20 per cent larger than the previous one.
The budget allocated for Vote Statistics rises and falls with each census cycle, so it isn’t easy to compare over time.
The total five-year budget for the census, granted by the National government, was $120m. The last census in 2013 cost about $90m.