Te Pāti Māori is counting on a better Māori turnout for Census 2023

Te Pati Maori co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. Waititi estimates a Māori undercount of about 100,000 people in Census 2018. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi is hoping the shortfall of Census 2018 for Maori won’t be repeated this time around.

Waititi estimates a Māori undercount of about 100,000 people in 2018.

Statistics Minister Deborah Russell says 1.5 million people completed their census forms online by Tuesday, the official census day.

Another million had filed their census by Wednesday, and from today census staff will start to visit the homes of those who did not fill out their forms.

People in the cyclone-hit areas of Taitokerau, Tairawhiti and Hawke’s Bay have another seven weeks to complete their forms, with extra resources being put into those areas, including partnerships with iwi.

Waititi says there are many issues that directly affect Maori that mainstream New Zealand does not see, and he is hopeful 2018 will not be repeated.

“They lost 50,000 in 2018, we believe it’s more,” Waititi told Waatea News.Com.

“We think it’s closer to 100,000 Maori.

“Because this is not suited for Maori. This is suited for those who own homes. It’s not the transient communities, our people, they’re renters, you know, the 4000 people living in emergency housing. And now we’re affected by floods … people are actually homeless.”

Waititi says many Maori don’t use the internet and distrust government data collection, and the only way to reach those people is kanohi ki te kanohi (face to face).

Te Pāti Māori president John Tamiihre says bureaucrats make it difficult for Māori to participate. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

Te Pāti Māori president John Tamihere agrees with Waititi.

The Urban Māori leader and Whānau Ora Commission Agency chief executive said bureaucrats made it difficult for Māori to participate.

He said census data was vitally important to Māori organisations and iwi who want to reconnect with their people, but the bureaucrats who run the census saw them as competitors rather than partners.

Tamihere said Statistics NZ could have called on Whānau Ora workers to support people to complete the census.

“So we run into a major difficulty in the so-called agency that runs the census actually sabotaging the ability for Māori to get their numbers up,” Tamihere said.

But Stats NZ director Māori, Te Atawhai Tibble, expects a far better census for Māori than in 2018.

He said direct involvement of iwi and other Māori was used to promote Census 2023.