Census: Poor turnout in South Auckland cost the area $130m in health funding

Dave Letele, who is potentially standing for Te Pāti Māori this year, was an ambassador for Census 2023. Photo / Greer Bland

Stephen Forbes, Local Democracy Reporter

South Auckland’s poor 2018 Census turnout cost the region $130 million in health funding in its past four years.

And, according to an expert, that cash could have helped tackle the area’s battles with diabetes and obesity.

Census information helps determine how billions of dollars in Government spending is allocated for health, education, transport, infrastructure and other services.

Counties Manukau has more people with diabetes than any other health region in the country.

Te Whatu Ora (Counties Manukau) director of population health Gary Jackson said there are 52,000 diabetics in Counties Manukau and that figure is growing by 2000 people a year. It is also home to 19 per cent of New Zealanders in the most extreme BMI (body mass index) group.

Figures released by Stats NZ this week show only 71 per cent of people in South Auckland have so far completed this year’s Census, compared with 83 per cent nationwide.

Te Whatu Ora chief financial officer Rosalie Percival said getting people to provide their details is vital to ensure areas like Counties Manukau get the healthcare services they need.

Dave Letele, who is potentially standing for Te Pāti Māori this year, was an ambassador for Census 2023. Photo / Greer Bland

“Health providers know about the people who turn up at their door needing care – but they have no other way of knowing about the presence of people who haven’t recently needed to use the health system,” she said.

“The data gained from the Census helps to inform important decisions about planning for the needs of local areas and subsequently healthcare spending.”

However, Buttabean Motivation (BBM) founder Dave Letele said getting people to complete the Census isn’t easy.

Letele, who is potentially standing for Te Pāti Māori in this year’s general election, was an ambassador for Census 2023, and was involved in a social media campaign that kicked off late last year to get more people to take part.

“There’s a massive distrust between our people and the Government and that’s what we need to overcome,” Letele said.

He said as a result a lot of people are weary about sharing their personal information with authorities.

“But it’s not just something you can throw money at to fix it.”

Deputy government statistician and deputy chief executive for Census and collection operations Simon Mason said that after the poor turnout in the 2018 Census,this year’s data collection was designed to address barriers to participation, including having more collectors and alternative formats for people to complete it and support a wider range of people.

A spokesperson for Stats NZ said teams will collect people’s responses until May 3 and will be running Census support events until June 4.