May 21, 2020
New board to oversee beefed up Census
Statistics New Zealand management will come under scrutiny with the appointment of a new governance advisory board.
The department has come under fire for botching the last census, with an over-reliance on people filling in forms online meaning a low completion rate.
Statistics Minister James Shaw says the board’s role will be to advise and sometimes challenge Stats NZ’s chief executive and leadership on matters of strategy, capability and performance.
The six-member board will be chaired by Callaghan Innovation chief executive Vic Crone, a former Telecom, Chorus and Xero executive, and includes two Māori, University of Waikato Associate Professor Māui Hudson and veteran public servant Te Rau Kupenga.
Mr Shaw says last week’s Budget gave Stats NZ $210 million to run the 2023 Census, two thirds more than the previous government gave it for the 2018 Census.
That will allow it to put thousands more staff in the field and boost engagement with NGOs, churches, Iwi and hapū, and other organisations with deep connections in their respective communities to drive up Census response rates.
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