Worked as enumerator on the 2023 census in a designated low uptake area. We went to every house in our area so got a lot of feedback. I was to offer any help to people who wanted assistance filling out the paper version. Most I talked to asked what do i put here? I didn’t want to confuse one 100 yr old lady so didn’t read the question to her. Shameful to ask a 100 yr old a fictitious question. I understand in the online version the question had to be answered to go on. People didn’t like that at all.
The antics of Stats NZ with regard to the last census are a disgrace. I noticed too they have or had staff involved with the cross-Govt “rainbow network”.
I exchanged a few messages with Census staff about the definition of “gender” and what they would do if the question was left blank. In the end they stopped replying. I tore up my form.
Fully be-clowned and genderborged. I long to see such agencies disestablished and replaced with something that sticks to the original requirements and purpose. All staff identity networks also need to be disestablished.
Having worked on the last Census for 2 years all I can say is Stats is the most PC captured organisation I have ever encountered. Full of white middle class highly educated people who feel very guilty about their privilege and this distorts all they do. Whether tackling ethnicity / Maori participation / sex identity it just became all hui no doing. The stories one could tell...
Great, forensic article. Thank you. Stats NZ are involved in marketing their own ideas, not seeking data and information about the population. I've seen OIAs about their definition of sex being changeable which refer to it changing if a person changes their birth certificate. Idiotic and captured.
Yes. It's good they seperate sex from some people's label for a group of feelings they have about sex aka gender identity,but they then go and ruin it all by saying something stupid like sex can change 🎶
Thank you. This is very worrying and brings all stats in the last 5 years or so into question. Particularly when it comes to health, crime and money. On the recent census, I crossed out the gender questions with a note 'I object to this question' and rewrote the sex ones.
I ordered the paper version and crossed out the gender question. I also crossed out “at birth” on the sex question. I didn’t sign it making a statement that it was impossible to complete accurately as the questions assumed I believed in the concept of gender identity. I never heard back .
I wonder. Surely there's an element of this which makes 'trading' the data nearly impossible now that it's been smudged, so they must've realised. It's hardly objective. It was so clearly trying to influence awareness and normalise new terminology - not the job of the census. Such a terrible waste, all that lost / smudged data, I wonder if it can be recovered and restored to it's essence again, or if it's gone now.
This is very thorough, thank you. I must say my muttered language got worse and worse as I read through the article - first at the end of the report on the Sullivan review, the last bit about Pink News, Mermaids et al, and then all the way through the section about the 2023 NZ census. I did know that the sex/gender section of that census was entirely unsatisfactory, but reading through it again really brought on the bad language. I know many people gave feedback about the 2023 census, can we hope that anything will change? (Can't remember how often a census is taken). Where is the Government oversight of the work it's departments do? We need a Sullivan Review here.
Thanks Sheryl, the census is every 5 years. It really appears like Stats NZ decided its main job was to participate in gender affirmation. Awkward. It's not going to get accurate stats about transgender identified people or the rest of us.
Worked as enumerator on the 2023 census in a designated low uptake area. We went to every house in our area so got a lot of feedback. I was to offer any help to people who wanted assistance filling out the paper version. Most I talked to asked what do i put here? I didn’t want to confuse one 100 yr old lady so didn’t read the question to her. Shameful to ask a 100 yr old a fictitious question. I understand in the online version the question had to be answered to go on. People didn’t like that at all.
The antics of Stats NZ with regard to the last census are a disgrace. I noticed too they have or had staff involved with the cross-Govt “rainbow network”.
I exchanged a few messages with Census staff about the definition of “gender” and what they would do if the question was left blank. In the end they stopped replying. I tore up my form.
Fully be-clowned and genderborged. I long to see such agencies disestablished and replaced with something that sticks to the original requirements and purpose. All staff identity networks also need to be disestablished.
Great report, Garwhoungle. Now all you need is a NZ Michael Biggs!!!!
Have cross posted
https://dustymasterson.substack.com/p/the-deer-hunter
Dusty
Having worked on the last Census for 2 years all I can say is Stats is the most PC captured organisation I have ever encountered. Full of white middle class highly educated people who feel very guilty about their privilege and this distorts all they do. Whether tackling ethnicity / Maori participation / sex identity it just became all hui no doing. The stories one could tell...
Great, forensic article. Thank you. Stats NZ are involved in marketing their own ideas, not seeking data and information about the population. I've seen OIAs about their definition of sex being changeable which refer to it changing if a person changes their birth certificate. Idiotic and captured.
Yes. It's good they seperate sex from some people's label for a group of feelings they have about sex aka gender identity,but they then go and ruin it all by saying something stupid like sex can change 🎶
Thank you. This is very worrying and brings all stats in the last 5 years or so into question. Particularly when it comes to health, crime and money. On the recent census, I crossed out the gender questions with a note 'I object to this question' and rewrote the sex ones.
I ordered the paper version and crossed out the gender question. I also crossed out “at birth” on the sex question. I didn’t sign it making a statement that it was impossible to complete accurately as the questions assumed I believed in the concept of gender identity. I never heard back .
A bunch of people said similar on Twitter. I sent this piece off to Stats NZ invluding to the acting government statistician.
I wonder if they've got the idea they stuffed up yet.
I wonder. Surely there's an element of this which makes 'trading' the data nearly impossible now that it's been smudged, so they must've realised. It's hardly objective. It was so clearly trying to influence awareness and normalise new terminology - not the job of the census. Such a terrible waste, all that lost / smudged data, I wonder if it can be recovered and restored to it's essence again, or if it's gone now.
This is very thorough, thank you. I must say my muttered language got worse and worse as I read through the article - first at the end of the report on the Sullivan review, the last bit about Pink News, Mermaids et al, and then all the way through the section about the 2023 NZ census. I did know that the sex/gender section of that census was entirely unsatisfactory, but reading through it again really brought on the bad language. I know many people gave feedback about the 2023 census, can we hope that anything will change? (Can't remember how often a census is taken). Where is the Government oversight of the work it's departments do? We need a Sullivan Review here.
Thanks Sheryl, the census is every 5 years. It really appears like Stats NZ decided its main job was to participate in gender affirmation. Awkward. It's not going to get accurate stats about transgender identified people or the rest of us.