August 05, 2022
Data bill not end of statistics partnership
The Associate Minister of Statistics is rejecting criticism from the Iwi Leaders Data Group of the new Data and Statistics Act which passed this week.
Meka Whaitiri says ministers met with the group multiple times over the last three years, and the need for an ongoing relationship with iwi Māori is written into the act.
She says it will give iwi better data on issues like housing and health, and it’s a significant advance on what came before.
“This legislation replaces something that was dated in 1975, no acknowledgement of iwi Māori. This legislation puts it right up front. It talks about our treaty obligation. Of course, we’ve got more work to do. We’ve never said it is 100 percent perfect but no legislation is,” Ms Whaitiri says.
Māori concerns about data sovereignty and offshore cloud storage of information can be part of an ongoing dialogue.