Eighteen enticed to fill out Census by Warehouse and supermarket vouchers at Warriors

Census stragglers at the Warriors match at Napier’s McLean Park were offered $20 supermarket vouchers or $40 Warehouse vouchers for their data - but only 18 league fans took up the offer.

Eleven Census staff worked at the game to help gather the information.

The 18 who took part last Saturday were among 932 people who filled out the Census in Napier last week in a series of promotions that cost taxpayers close to $49,000.

Some were given tickets to see the One New Zealand Warriors game on Saturday in exchange for their information and a Stats NZ spokesperson said they were happy with the promotion’s outcome and said it helped raise the profile of the Census and its importance with key audiences.

“The Warriors have been involved with advocating the Census since Census Week, and then we successfully partnered with them for their home game in Auckland in April. This resulted in over 2000 people, who had not engaged with the Census, completing their forms.”

Stats NZ deputy Government statistician and deputy chief executive of Census and collection operations Simon Mason told the Herald 11 collection staff were working at the game.

“While four of the team supporting census form completions at the Warriors’ game were from out of town, they were actually part of the general census collection effort on the ground in the Hawke’s Bay and not brought in for this promotion.”

He said teams have been supporting people in the community to fill out Census forms, either at their door or at events.

Stats NZ boosted collection teams in Hawke’s Bay and Te Tairāwhiti after the national count finished on May 3.

“This helped ensure people in cyclone-impacted areas were supported to take part in the 2023 Census.”

Mason said five collection events were held between May 23 and 27, including the Warriors’ training session on Friday, May 26.

These resulted in the completion of 932 new individual forms and 249 dwelling forms.

Just over $11,000 was also spent on Warriors tickets given away in Napier as part of Census participation encouragement last month.

Just under $30,000 was spent in Auckland for a Warriors ticketing promotion in April.

While Mason said the total cost of all promotional initiatives to date would need to be addressed in an Official Information Act request, he told the Herald as of late May they have spent $3.92 million in advertising and marketing support of the post-Census Day collection.

“Learning from 2018, we have invested more in advertising and marketing support of the post-Census Day collection.

“This includes television, radio, print, outdoor and online advertising, and development of tailored materials and content for priority response groups - including Māori, Pacific peoples and ethnic communities - and additional funding received to support the extension of the Census in cyclone-impacted areas.”

National Party statistics spokesman Simon Watts told the Herald the initiatives to raise Māori and Pasifika response rates have not worked.

“Māori response rates sitting at around 74 per cent only 4 per cent higher than they were in 2018, and that was considered a disaster. While there’s been significant money spent on trying to increase this response rate, including these Warrior tickets and hasn’t delivered the outcomes.”

He told the Herald he did not believe the incentives had achieved the outcomes needed and that was evidenced by the “low numbers and low turnout”.

As of Thursday morning, Stats NZ said the national 2023 Census tally was 4,529,282 people.

The estimated number of individuals yet to return their forms is just over 600,000.

“The 2023 Census closes on 30 June, at 5pm. Up to then, people will be able to complete their census forms online at www.census.govt.nz. If returning paper forms, these will need to be posted to arrive with Stats NZ by 30 June to be counted.”