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February 23, 2023
Stats slow and go for cyclone census
Peter Verschaffelt
Posted On February 23, 2023
Stats NZ’s Maori director says the department is taking a slow and go approach to collecting the census in areas worst affected by Cyclone Gabrielle.
Work has been suspended in those areas, coveing about 12 percent of the population.
Atawhai Tibble says those areas also have a high density of Māori, and it’s working closely with iwi and Māori academics on when and how to get the data.
“We can’t support invisible people. We need to know who and where people are. We have been informed by iwi they do want the insight but they want us to take it easy on those areas and to go in when it is appropriate so that’s kind of the slow and go approach and we still need to go back to ministers to get some final approvals for how long we can wait,” he says.
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