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A Wellington man who burned his census forms last year has been found guilty of breaching the Statistics Act.
Economist Nik Haden faced three charges - one of destroying the forms and one each for failing to fill in the individual and dwelling forms.
Haden represented himself at a hearing in Wellington District Court in April.
In a reserved decision released yesterday Judge Carolyn Henwood said the charges against him had been proven.
On March 12 a Statistics NZ employee went to Haden's home to collect forms she had previously dropped off. Haden came to the door and told her she was not going to get the forms because they had been put in the fire.
She asked him if he was joking and he said he was not. He said he was refusing to complete the forms and calmly helped her complete a refusal form.
Judge Henwood said Haden did not dispute that the legal ingredients of the charges against him had been met. But he argued that prosecuting him would serve no benefit as it was too late for Statistics to use the information.
He also said only 72 people were being prosecuted so his conviction would serve no public benefit.
Haden asked the court to make a finding that the requirement to complete a census form was inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act. He said the law under the Statistics Act was "immoral" and breached his right to privacy.
Haden also said there were more efficient and useful ways of gathering statistics information than by way of a census.
The court did not agree with Haden's views and Judge Henwood said the Bill of Rights Act did not give the right to "withhold information from the Government Statistician on the grounds of privacy."
Haden later said he was not really surprised by the decision.
"When I started I always knew it was going to be a tough one to win but I was really doing it mainly just to highlight some of the issues around the census, what's happening overseas and just make a stand on principle even if I wasn't going to win in court," he said.
A sentencing date has yet to be set.
Haden said the maximum fine for each charge was $500, so he was looking at a worst case scenario of $1500 plus court costs. "Obviously I'm hoping I don't get the book thrown at me".
- NZPA
