The information was acquired by private organizations and private individuals, which had been handed the Census forms by virtue of a contract with the Ministry of Statistics. Today it was announced those private outfits photocopied the forms. No-one has any idea how those photocopied forms were used. Take a look at the government's solemn promise on the documents you signed:
Click to view
Is there an apology from Labour's Hipkins who was PM at the time? Don't dream of it. Is there an apology from his Minister of Statistics, Deborah Russell? Don't dream of it. No. Its another Wellington fix: just get the current Acting Head of Stats NZ to resign. For many years - until 2020 - Stats NZ was led by a person who had never even studied statistics. But the guy who was Captain of the Ship, Former PM Hipkins, at the time when 5,000,000 Kiwis were misled into thinking that their most private of data, including on "sexual identity, whether they have any variations of sex characteristics (also known as intersex status)", personal income, private address, ancestry, and more, would be kept confidential - he just walks away from it. So look out. You may see your Census 2023 data posted on the Web one day, for everyone to have a laugh at. The moral of the story is: don't trust the government.
Click to view
Is there an apology from Labour's Hipkins who was PM at the time? Don't dream of it. Is there an apology from his Minister of Statistics, Deborah Russell? Don't dream of it. No. Its another Wellington fix: just get the current Acting Head of Stats NZ to resign. For many years - until 2020 - Stats NZ was led by a person who had never even studied statistics. But the guy who was Captain of the Ship, Former PM Hipkins, at the time when 5,000,000 Kiwis were misled into thinking that their most private of data, including on "sexual identity, whether they have any variations of sex characteristics (also known as intersex status)", personal income, private address, ancestry, and more, would be kept confidential - he just walks away from it. So look out. You may see your Census 2023 data posted on the Web one day, for everyone to have a laugh at. The moral of the story is: don't trust the government.
Professor Robert MacCulloch holds the Matthew S. Abel Chair of Macroeconomics at Auckland University. He has previously worked at the Reserve Bank, Oxford University, and the London School of Economics. He runs the blog Down to Earth Kiwi from where this article was sourced.
7 comments:
That very fact means that the next census will have little uptake......
"The moral of the story is: don't trust the government".
And don't fill out census forms.
Since all the seemingly largely irrelevant questions about sexuality I , like millions of others, have ceased to take the census seriously and make little effort to get income etc correct . Along with the myriads uncoperative with perceived colonisers, and the many dubiously legal immigrants who abstain or conjure, the Census is rapidly becoming irrelevant
The govt care not one jot about your privacy.
Remember the IRD is selling your data to third parties.
The brave new world will require AI to process all your information. This is now a govt initiative.
Want chance do you think a government department will have against an intelligent machine way smarter than most people on planet earth, to protect your privacy?
None at all.
So who tells bigger or more lies - Hipkins or Trump ?
At least the NZ MSM publishes most of Trumps lies, but they are not even critical of Hipkins lies.
And the MSM are trying to get Hipkins re-elected as PM !
Plus, if you were the wrong colour you would get fined for not filling it in. If you were the correct colour you would get bribed to fill it in.
Good advice Professor but maybe 8 years too late?
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