Yes, at long last - not a moment before time - someone has deigned to 'take responsibility' for the massive botch-up that was Census 2018...
The Minister 'responsible for' Stats NZ? Not on your life, no, the woman in charge of its undertaking.
So you'd hardly be surprised by the response of this particular punter, early this morning, while listening to Newstalk ZB's and RNZ National's respective journos interviewing the relevant commentators about the sheer unadulterated debacle that was Census 2018...
"B....y hell, they're useless!" was my involuntarily, if mental response to Minister James Shaw bouncing around upon the head of half a dozen pins in order to avoid calling out the entire exercise, doubtless due to the rather unedifying reflection an honest assessment of the whole sorry saga would inevitably have...upon guess who?
Yes, as almost every commentator has well stated, at least Liz MacPherson had the [moral integrity] to take personal responsibility, to decide to herself 'cop it' for the colossal cock-up involved, and hand in her resignation accordingly...
But don't get me wrong, as has been well said by others in times gone by - and myself as well - 'the previous lot' (i.e. the Key/English Government) are themselves far from blameless thereabouts. Too busy conducting a meaningless flag referendum, you'd not be far off in suggesting; whilst totally and utterly ignoring the only referendum worth attending to during their nine-year tenure, the one in which the overwhelming majority of kiwis gave the absolute thumbs-down to the insane new *no-smacking legislation foisted upon an unwilling populace by Sue Bradford, Helen Clark et al...
Hey, statistics are just a bunch of contestable numbers and not all that important anyway, I hear you saying. Bringing to mind that well-hackneyed saying about 'damn lies and statistics'. Surely, but by the same token why even bother to have such a (Governmental) 'Department' if such things don't really matter anyway? No, you can't have it both ways, people...
But it gets a whole lot worse than that. For not only were large number of the indigenous population (i.e. Maori) themselves not engaged in filling out said Census, but various talkback callers throughout the morning upon Kerre Woodham-McIver's Newstalk ZB morning show revealed that technical computer folk were among those completely bamboozled and flummoxed by the census, and that for all manner of reasons I'll not go into just now...
No, all round a failure of momentous proportions in an exercise which is understandably fairly pivotal insofar as any government requires accurate/precise, super-detailed and comprehensive info in order to plan for the needs and requirements of the people they would claim to be ruling. And moreover for a Government already arguably long on fair speeches and over-promising and rather shorter upon actual, feet-on-the-ground delivery of many wonderful intentions, it's all the worse...
An A, B or C minus for their efforts? No, folks...and even a D, E or F would scarcely suffice...
No, back to the literal drawing board, peoples, and without any further ado...
-a real stuff-up doesn't even begin to come close to describing what went on, and I'm not even referring to the pathetic employment practices of those responsible for getting would-be canvassers out there and on the ground doing the proper job that was never such a problem in decades gone by.
Such as requiring mobile phones for census collectors in areas (like vast chunks of Northland, for instance) that they've been made well aware - by job candidates themselves - are simply without such cellphone coverage in the first place.
Yes, heads should roll, including that already tendered, but the real candidates for ye ole honourable 'buck-stopping' have, as per usual, gotten off scot-free; and, far worse than that, are, as Minister Shaw himself well epitomizes, not only - and genuinely! - quite unfazed by what's happened, to beggar belief still further they can't even imagine they've done anything at all wrong...
But hey, all isn't lost, people, I understand that the producers of the classic British political sit-com 'Yes Minister' are falling over themselves to get to our fair land in an unholy scramble to resurrect that show so as not to miss out upon our self-made bit of satire and slapstick that was Census 2018.
*Which, despite ongoing strenuous efforts by various champions of said law, yes, does effectively outlaw - the vast majority of - parental smacking...and no sirree, this most assuredly ain't fake news!
The Minister 'responsible for' Stats NZ? Not on your life, no, the woman in charge of its undertaking.
So you'd hardly be surprised by the response of this particular punter, early this morning, while listening to Newstalk ZB's and RNZ National's respective journos interviewing the relevant commentators about the sheer unadulterated debacle that was Census 2018...
"B....y hell, they're useless!" was my involuntarily, if mental response to Minister James Shaw bouncing around upon the head of half a dozen pins in order to avoid calling out the entire exercise, doubtless due to the rather unedifying reflection an honest assessment of the whole sorry saga would inevitably have...upon guess who?
Yes, as almost every commentator has well stated, at least Liz MacPherson had the [moral integrity] to take personal responsibility, to decide to herself 'cop it' for the colossal cock-up involved, and hand in her resignation accordingly...
But don't get me wrong, as has been well said by others in times gone by - and myself as well - 'the previous lot' (i.e. the Key/English Government) are themselves far from blameless thereabouts. Too busy conducting a meaningless flag referendum, you'd not be far off in suggesting; whilst totally and utterly ignoring the only referendum worth attending to during their nine-year tenure, the one in which the overwhelming majority of kiwis gave the absolute thumbs-down to the insane new *no-smacking legislation foisted upon an unwilling populace by Sue Bradford, Helen Clark et al...
Hey, statistics are just a bunch of contestable numbers and not all that important anyway, I hear you saying. Bringing to mind that well-hackneyed saying about 'damn lies and statistics'. Surely, but by the same token why even bother to have such a (Governmental) 'Department' if such things don't really matter anyway? No, you can't have it both ways, people...
But it gets a whole lot worse than that. For not only were large number of the indigenous population (i.e. Maori) themselves not engaged in filling out said Census, but various talkback callers throughout the morning upon Kerre Woodham-McIver's Newstalk ZB morning show revealed that technical computer folk were among those completely bamboozled and flummoxed by the census, and that for all manner of reasons I'll not go into just now...
No, all round a failure of momentous proportions in an exercise which is understandably fairly pivotal insofar as any government requires accurate/precise, super-detailed and comprehensive info in order to plan for the needs and requirements of the people they would claim to be ruling. And moreover for a Government already arguably long on fair speeches and over-promising and rather shorter upon actual, feet-on-the-ground delivery of many wonderful intentions, it's all the worse...
An A, B or C minus for their efforts? No, folks...and even a D, E or F would scarcely suffice...
No, back to the literal drawing board, peoples, and without any further ado...
-a real stuff-up doesn't even begin to come close to describing what went on, and I'm not even referring to the pathetic employment practices of those responsible for getting would-be canvassers out there and on the ground doing the proper job that was never such a problem in decades gone by.
Such as requiring mobile phones for census collectors in areas (like vast chunks of Northland, for instance) that they've been made well aware - by job candidates themselves - are simply without such cellphone coverage in the first place.
Yes, heads should roll, including that already tendered, but the real candidates for ye ole honourable 'buck-stopping' have, as per usual, gotten off scot-free; and, far worse than that, are, as Minister Shaw himself well epitomizes, not only - and genuinely! - quite unfazed by what's happened, to beggar belief still further they can't even imagine they've done anything at all wrong...
But hey, all isn't lost, people, I understand that the producers of the classic British political sit-com 'Yes Minister' are falling over themselves to get to our fair land in an unholy scramble to resurrect that show so as not to miss out upon our self-made bit of satire and slapstick that was Census 2018.
*Which, despite ongoing strenuous efforts by various champions of said law, yes, does effectively outlaw - the vast majority of - parental smacking...and no sirree, this most assuredly ain't fake news!
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