NEW ZEALAND – New Zealand’s introduction of an online census has caused consternation throughout with country, with the absence of an ethnic group choice, accessibility issues for the disabled and elderly, and fears that the nation’s most marginalised people won’t be counted.

Yesterday, Statistics New Zealand undertook the five-yearly census, a snapshot of how many people and dwellings there are in New Zealand and who is living in, and visiting the country.

More than 1.5 million people had already filled in their census form online, but thousands more were struggling as without access to a computer or the internet, had not received a postal access code allowing them to fill in the form online, or didnot identify with the ethnic groups or genders listed.

The ongoing exclusion of the ethnic group Pakeha – the Maori word for a New Zealander of European descent – has caused upset and prompted a petition demanding it be reinstated.

The broadcaster Stacey Morrison said the term New Zealand European did not adequately reflect how many New Zealanders saw themselves.

“Pakeha expresses the nature of your family’s voyage to New Zealand – that you have come, at some point, voyaged to and made New Zealand your home,” Morrison said. “It tells the story of who your family is.”

Other New Zealanders expressed concern that only the male and female genders were listed in the census and there were no questions regarding New Zealanders’ sexuality.

The minister of statistics, James Shaw, told Radio NZ it was too late to change the questions but he would push to include questions about New Zealander’s sexual identities and preferences in the 2023 census.

“We’ve got to gather this data because we make significant health care funding decisions, and other public policy decision in relation to this community, and we don’t have granular enough information at the moment.”

Shaw is part of the Prime Minister’s delegation touring the South Pacific, so he’s not required to take part.

The opposition National Party claims the results of the census are likely to be “skewed” because of difficulties disabled people are having accessing the online forms

“It’s obvious that officials are really struggling to land a credible result for the 2018 census,” National MP Scott Simpson, the former Minister of Statistics, said in a statement.

Conducted primarily online for the first time, there have been reports of people not getting the codes required to enter their details sent to them, as well as not being sent the paper forms which are available on request.

There are also the more perennial complaints that the process in intrusive, that questions around religion may be offensive to some and that the options for ethnicity are unfair.

Reports that people with disabilities were struggling to access the forms prompted National to question the integrity of the result of the survey.

Some blind people have reportedly complained that they did not know what the letters said.

Jonathan Mosen, a Wellington IT professional who has been blind since birth, has highlighted issues with the census forms in posts on his blog, pointing out that even with sophisticated scanning technology, the code required to complete the online form could not be accessed.

As a result, Mosen said the Wellington manager of Statistics New Zealand had to physically go to his house to assist him on Sunday, preventing him from breaking the law by refusing to take part in the census.

Nicky Wagner, National’s disabilities spokeswoman, said it was “extremely disappointing” that people with disabilities were struggling and that was likely to affect the outcome.

Age Concern has also cast doubt on whether the census will gather an accurate picture “of what that older population is and is going to be”.

Stats NZ said it had reached out to a number of organisations including IHC and CCS which had facilitated training to assist clients on filling out the forms, although this only extended to the North Island.

- PNC sources