Census focus for REBUS Club

Statistician, Len Cook CBE, spoke on the New Zealand Census and how this informs government planning decisions at the July meeting of The REBUS Club of Khandallah.

Len was New Zealand’s Government Statistician from 1992 to 2000, and National Statistician and Director of the United Kingdom Office for National Statistics, and Registrar General for England and Wales from 2000 to 2005.

He served as Families Commissioner in New Zealand from 2015 to 2018.

He began his talk with a question: “What is a Population Census for?”

Using a series of charts his answers included, a healthy democracy, so we all know who we are and how we are changing, trustworthy public services and knowledgeable foresight.

Len went on to explain the key needs met by a Census, prominent among them being constitutional integrity of the state and public confidence, the integrity of the electoral boundaries, and the quality of decision making and trust in government institutions.

He explained the key issues for Census takers, such as how those which characterised population structure and how dynamics some 20 years ago could have significance in the present day and, likewise, this year’s census could predict needs 20 years into the future.

The presentation covered many aspects of future planning with an example being the current shortage of nurses which could be traced back to trends in birth rates, increase in the older population and access to alternative occupations for women.

REBUS is a club for seniors and meets on the last Friday of the month. The next meeting is on Friday 25 August at 10 am at the Khandallah Bowling Club, Woodmancote Road.

The guest speaker will be Sue Barker, director of Sue Barker Charities Law, speaking on “Charities - the Tide of Change.” Visitors welcome. For more information about the club, see https://khandallahrebus.wixsite. com/khandallahrebusclub or internet search “Khandallah REBUS.”