National claims disability access issues will undermine nationwide census results

Tuesday, 6 March 2018

While the 2018 census is primarily being conducted online, codes to access the forms are being sent to households across New Zealand. Some people have complained that the letters have not turned up or that they cannot access the codes.

The Opposition claims the results of the 2018 census are likely to be 'skewed' because of difficulties disabled people are having accessing the online forms

On Tuesday, Statistics New Zealand undertakes the five-yearly census, a snapshot of how many people and dwellings there are in New Zealand and who is living in, and visiting the country.

The man ultimately responsible for the success or failure of the Census won't be filling out a form. Statistics Minister James Shaw is part of the Prime Minister's delegation touring the South Pacific, so he's not required to take part.

While the snapshot is meant to record where people are on the evening of March 6, Stats NZ has said well over a million people have already completed the online forms.

But the process is not without complaint. Conducted primarily online for the first time, there have been reports of people not getting the codes required to enter their details sent to them, as well as not being sent the paper forms which are available on request.

These have come alongside more perennial complaints that the process in intrusive, that questions around religion may be offensive to some and that the options for ethnicity, which for example do not include Pākehā as an option, are unfair.

But reports that people with disabilities were struggling to access the forms prompted National to question the integrity of the result of the survey.

Some blind people have reportedly complained that they did not know what the letters said.

Jonathan Mosen, a Wellington IT professional who has been blind since birth, has highlighted issues with the census forms in posts on his blog, pointing out that even with sophisticated scanning technology, the code required to complete the online form could not be accessed.

As a result, Mosen said the Wellington manager of Statistics New Zealand had to physically go to his house to assist him on Sunday, preventing him from breaking the law by refusing to take part in the census.

On Tuesday, National launched an attack on Statistics Minister James Shaw, claiming he was 'missing in action'. Shaw, like Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, is overseas as part of the week long Pacific Mission.

'It's obvious that officials are really struggling to land a credible result for the 2018 census,' National MP Scott Simpson, the former Minister of Statistics, said in a statement.

Nicky Wagner, National's disabilities spokeswoman, said it was 'extremely disappointing' that people with disabilities were struggling and that was likely to affect the outcome.

'Not only does it exclude them from the opportunity to take part, but it's likely the results will be skewed because so many people from this sector of society won't be represented.'

Age Concern has also cast doubt on whether the census will gather an accurate picture 'of what that older population is and is going to be'.

Stats NZ said it had reached out to a number of organisations including IHC and CCS which had facilitated training to assist clients on filling out the forms, although this only extended to the North Island.

The Blind Foundation offered a call-back service for members who indicated they would need assistance and produced materials about the census sent to 12,045 members a range of formats.

But Stats NZ acknowledged the Blind Foundation's network did not reach everyone.

'Some people will already have sought help from family, friends or others to read their access codes out to them so they can fill in their census. But Stats NZ acknowledges that they should not have to ask for help to read their access codes.'

*Audio courtesy of Radio NZ