Cost pressure and saving money does not bode well for IDI and annual survey replacing the Census.

In the Government’s press release on the scrapping of the census cost pressures and saving money were mentioned several times.

This does not bode well for the reliance on an annual survey and targeted data collection to help bridge the data gap.

Here are some examples specific to child poverty CPAG has seen of survey’s that have faced funding cuts or have been lost through lack of funding.

Faced cuts or irregular funding

Growing up in New Zealand Survey https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/513461/government-funding-ends-for-15-year-long-growing-up-in-new-zealand-project

National Nutrition Survey – The last nutrition survey was conducted in 2008/09 and the most recent children’s survey dates from 2002. https://www.phcc.org.nz/briefing/decades-old-nutrition-data-leave-nz-dark-updated-nutrition-survey-needed

National Youth and Wellbeing Survey’s since 1999 there have been a few iterations of a survey such as the Youth2000 survey and What About Me? The latest 2025 represents the merging of these two with plans to conduct this survey every three years. Based on past changes funding and focus can we be certain of consistency?

https://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/consultations/youth-health-and-wellbeing-survey-results/index.html

https://www.fmhs.auckland.ac.nz/en/faculty/adolescent-health-research-group.html

Participation rates

The Household Economic Survey- The foundation for child poverty statistics. This survey has faced persistent challenges in securing adequate participation.

With a low of 45.5% in 21/22 and although improved in the last two years – 70.5% in 2022/23 and 95.7% in 2023/24 – this instability has introduced significant uncertainty into year-to-year fluctuations in key child poverty measures.

There is a deeper issue: data silencing. Marginalised communities, particularly Māori and Pacific households, continue to be underrepresented in the survey, with participation rates lagging at just 67%. This underrepresentation is not a mere technical issue; it actively distorts the statistical picture, producing larger margins of error, greater uncertainty, and an unreliable measure of ethnic disparities in child poverty.

Lost

Living in Aotearoa survey – Providing longititudinal data that was to be used for persistent poverty measurement under the Child Poverty Reduction Act GONE https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/04/04/stats-nz-scraps-survey-gathering-key-child-poverty-data/