5. Question No. 5—StatisticsDAMIEN SMITH (ACT) to the Minister of StatisticsQuestion No. 5—Statistics5. DAMIEN SMITH (ACT) to the Minister of Statistics: What was the total cost if any of the One NZ Warriors census promotion including free tickets $25 food vouchers for the game and a draw for a holiday to Australia as an incentive for completing the New Zealand census and how many entered the draw?Hon Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL (Minister of Statistics): We need to do everything we can in the final stages of collections to help reach all communities which might not otherwise participate in the census. The value of the data far exceeds the amount that is spent on arrangements like this. A maximum of $150000 was budgeted for the Warriors promotion and as of today the total cost is sitting at $126694. In terms of how many people have entered the draw we do not know that yet as the promotion is still open until 13 May 2023.Damien Smith: Does the Minister believe that it's fair that people who completed their census on time got no rewards while those who didn't complete their census on time received rewards for doing so?Hon Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL: The great majority of New Zealanders have completed the census as required by law and in fact the return rate is tracking along reasonably well. However at this end of the census we are getting to the stage where we need those last few responses in order to get a viable and robust response. That is why we are taking whatever steps necessary to ensure that people do the census and if that takes promotions and the like then that is what we will do in order to get the census completed.Damien Smith: Does the Minister consider an 86 percent completion rate for the census acceptable?Hon Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL: As of today the completion rate for the census of raw numbers of forms returned is sitting at around about 87 percent and it is continuing to go up day by day. The acceptable result is one that gives us a robust data set going forward into the future for decisions to be made for our communities. Stats NZ is confident that together with the raw forms returned and the subsequent addition of administrative data we will have an excellent completion rate.Hon Kieran McAnulty: Did she consider freezing benefits for those who did not complete the census as advocated by the ACT Party?Hon Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL: There are accepted—SPEAKER: Hang on. The Minister doesn't have responsibility for that.Damien Smith: Does the Minister believe that spending more than $300 million on the census for only an 87 percent response rate is a success or a failure and who is responsible for that?Hon Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL: What matters in terms of the census is the extent to which we can gather a robust data set. That is done with a combination of census returns—the raw data returned to us—and the administrative data that is filled in subsequently. The cost of the census comprehends both those sets of values and in terms of the costing that is done for it we know that the return from completing the census from getting this work done is a return of roughly 4:1 in terms of the capacity that people have to make decisions going forward based on an excellent data set.Damien Smith: Does the Minister intend to provide future incentives and freebies for people who do not bother to complete their census in the next census?Hon Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL: There are standard processes for encouraging people to complete the census. At this stage it is a matter of people doing their civic duty and incentives. Going forward we will be looking at prosecutions but that is an operational matter for Stats NZ to pursue. In terms of what we do with the next census that will depend on the evaluation of this census and that won't be completed for a long time yet.