Smith NickHon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson): I move That the House take note of a matter of urgent public importance. This is notably the resignation of the Government Statistician and the damning report on Census 2018. It is official that last year's census was a shambles and it matters a great deal. We have tens of billions of dollars of money for health and education and other public services that relies on the census. We have crucial planning for infrastructure for roading for schools for hospitals that depends on a reliable census. We have all sorts of public policy research that depends on the reliability of the census. And of course we have the setting of the number of Māori seats the number of general seats and the boundaries for electorates dependent on the census. So it is entirely appropriate that this House debates the report and the resignation on the worst census that has been conducted in New Zealand.It is a basic fundamental job that simply involves counting New Zealanders. It's been done since biblical times. In this country we've done it regularly since 1851. And no amount of spin can hide the fact that over 800000 New Zealanders were not counted. That is one-in-seven New Zealanders did not participate in last year's census and for Māori and Pacific it was even worse with one-in-three New Zealanders not being counted in the census. And for all the window dressing and spin that we get from the Minister of Statistics that somehow this is the best census that's ever been conducted we on this side of the House say Not good enough." and we seek some accountability.Now the reliability of the census depends on a high level of participation. The last two censuses received a level of 95 percent. The target for this census was 94 percent. The fact that only 83 percent of New Zealanders filled out and completed a census really brings into serious doubt the reliability of the census with that huge hole. National seeks three things in this debate. Firstly we want an end of the charade Minister. For 18 months you've been dismissing concerns Minister about the census. You've said that it's been the most successful census ever.SPEAKER: Order! The member should address the Chair.Hon Dr NICK SMITH: It was not—this report brutally exposes the scale of the multiple failures that occurred and the complete lack of openness and transparency by the Government. Secondly we want some accountability. The chief statistician has accepted some responsibility but we want the Minister to stop lashing out to stop duck shoving and to actually accept his share of the responsibility for the debacle that was Census 2018. And thirdly we want some reassurance that the lessons of that census have been learnt. We keep seeing these really basic errors from this Government whether it be KiwiBuild whether it be in terms of the Budget where basic confidential information is released whether it's the fiasco in the Department of Corrections where the worst criminal in New Zealand history is able to spread his hate from letters behind bars.SPEAKER: Order! Order! The member will resume his seat. This is a very narrow debate on the census and the Government Statistician's resigning. It is an urgent debate and the member's been going for five minutes now; he has 15. There's no obligation to use it all and if he can't stay with the topic then I will terminate his speech.Hon Dr NICK SMITH: My point is this comes one after another after another of basic failures in public services by this Government of which there is a pattern of which the census is the latest failure.The first concerns I had reported to me about the census were when major retirement homes in my community in which there were over 200 homes received a single census pack. I had long-experienced census field officers contacting my electorate office concerned about it all going to custard and we had all over New Zealand media reporting experiences of people unable to get access to the 0800 numbers unable to participate in the census. There were people from Kaitāia in the north to Bluff in the south who were being frustrated in their attempts to participate in the census and even more concerning fieldworkers for the census were being told that they shouldn't bother with long driveways in rural areas. And yet the Minister of Statistics repeatedly told the Parliament that it was all going swimmingly well. He told us that all the targets were being met and he dismissed concerns. Can I give one example. The Northland Age reported the census being a shambles. The Minister said that the Northland Age editor was wrong that it was fake news and that we shouldn't believe what we see on social media. What we saw in last week's report was truly damning. It says that the census suffered from poor governance and leadership that there was a lack of transparency and overly optimistic reports on how well the census was going that there was a failure to elevate when things went wrong up to the appropriate levels of management and that the project of delivering the census was flawed. At a very basic and practical level the census failed because there was not the backup for those people who were not able to participate on an online basis. There were very basic errors where the printer was unable to print the additional census forms that were being requested. And even though there was a decline in the number of field officers for the census—even then they failed to provide the number of those staff. Yet we hear that the Government said in its response that this was all National's fault. The default position if anything goes wrong in the Government is "Oh it's just the previous Government's fault." We had the Prime Minister say that the primary concern was funding. Well the independent report said that there was adequate funding and the level of budget was no excuse. The independent report from the Government said the Prime Minister was wrong. The Minister has attempted to sheet blame back to the previous Government as part of his ducking and diving from taking responsibility saying that it was the digital-first strategy that was flawed. The independent report rejects that. It says that digital-first was an appropriate strategy—it worked in Australia; it worked in Canada—it was the delivery that was a failure. I want to hold the Minister responsible in five specific areas where he let down the Government and the people of New Zealand. It is truly remarkable that in the six months after he became Minister—the six months before the census—he did not request or receive a single specific in-person briefing on Census 2018. I contrast that with the record of Maurice Williamson who had 10 specific meetings on the census in the six months prior to Census 2014. The Minister was asleep at the wheel. The briefing to the incoming Minister made plain that delivery of the census was one of the most important issues and he was missing in action. In the period prior to the census his predecessor for Census 2014 issued 12 press releases encouraging people to participate in the census. How many did this Minister issue? Not a single one. In fact he couldn't even be bothered being in the country for the census such was his lack of leadership—an issue that is criticised in the report which identifies it as one of the key failings. I say to the Minister you made a serious error of judgment—SPEAKER: Order! Hon Dr NICK SMITH: —on the one week on which the census occurs in every five years for the Minister to not even be participating in the census and being out of the country. Then there's the issue of transparency. If we look at the Minister's response he was telling the Parliament in April of 2018 that all the targets were being met. That was not true. We now know from the independent report that the census was failing to meet its targets on participation rates all the way from census night. Every single daily report showed that they were behind targets. It has been like drawing teeth to get information about Census 2018. The target was 94 percent. Finally after four months the department of statistics admitted that it was only going to achieve 90 percent. Earlier this year under scrutiny at the select committee they finally admitted "Oh no no no—oops!" Was it 90 percent? It was 85 percent. Then finally the independent report showed that participation was only 83 percent. In other words 800000 New Zealanders did not participate in that census and my question for the Minister is: why was he not more upfront with New Zealanders when he knew within days of the census that the wheels were falling off? Then the Minister played the blame game and said that oh no it was nothing to do with him—it wasn't his responsibility. He has the ministerial warrant. Under the Westminster tradition he is finally responsible. I've seen colleagues from his side of the House call for Ministers' resignations for far less than the census failure in 2018 but the Minister repeatedly refused to accept any responsibility and indeed ducked and dived in terms of providing open and honest answers about the degree to which the census failed. This is how bad it got in the select committee. When we finally got out of the department of statistics that there were over 700000 people that had not responded to the census Government members on the select committee insisted that that information be secret until the end of the parliamentary term and after the next election. Hang on a moment this is meant to be the most open transparent Government ever and they wanted—Ginny Andersen: You leaked it—you leaked it. Hon Dr NICK SMITH: The member who interjects laid a privileges complaint against me in respect of providing the public with honest frank information about the scale of the mistakes that were made and the hole in the data. Then we had the outrageous statements from James Shaw last week that somehow National is engaging in fake news and Trump-like politics because he had become so defensive and so embarrassed about the census failure. Here's the interesting part: compare the independent report with the public statements that were made about the census last year and every one of James Shaw's statements whether it was "We were meeting all the targets." "It's going to be the best census ever." "Those people that are criticising the census are in the business of fake news."—line that up with the independent report and we actually find that National's opposition and the media were far more accurate in their description of what had occurred with Census 2018 than what the Minister was saying. For that misinformation he owes the Parliament and the people of New Zealand an apology. The mess that occurred with Census 2018 now requires administrative data to be backfilled to try and fix this mess. Members on this side of the House have real questions about how you might pull that together—whether it be health data education data or IRD data—and somehow produce accurate statistics for New Zealand to plan and move forward. We have real doubts. We believe that if the census had been done properly we would have had far more reliable information with which to deliver those important public services for New Zealand. The department of statistics has failed. It's failed to be transparent. It's failed to deliver a census of quality and my challenge for the Minister this afternoon is to stop the ducking and diving take some responsibility and recognise that you made serious errors of judgment—SPEAKER: Order! Hon Dr NICK SMITH: —in preparation for the census because New Zealanders will pay dearly for the failure that occurred last year."