The old New Zealand Census – first conducted in 1851 – is to be no more.

In its place will be a new and largely untried system that could potentially undermine the statistical basis of crucial social and economic policy making and planning.

In our view, these major changes are being made prematurely, without the level of expert independent scrutiny such sweeping reform demands.

The Data and Statistics (Census) Amendment Bill and the Electoral (District Boundaries) Amendment Bill are currently before parliament, with select committee submissions having just closed.

The bills propose to replace New Zealand’s internationally accepted, five-yearly, field-based census of all households with incomplete administrative data collected for other purposes by government departments and agencies.

This administrative data will be augmented by a new Census Attributes Survey. Over a period of several years, the survey will sample 3–5% of the population. The information from those surveyed will be added to existing administrative data.

The replacement system will not be a census in the true sense. Nor will it meet the accepted international definition of “official statistics”.

Before these bills become law, we argue there should be an independent review through the relevant parliamentary committee. This should involve a panel of international and local experts reassessing the proposal and the suitability of its statistical methodology.

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