CENSUS 2006

Census 2006 would see the introduction of two technological innovations. The first was the adoption of Internet-based census forms (Statistics New Zealand, 2004). This would enable the dwelling and individual forms to be submitted electronically via the Internet by the householder and individuals. The second, in part necessitated by the first, was to automate the flow of information about the forms submitted either electronically or via post to the enumerators (collectors). On the basis of the Internet ID on the census form the enumerators were texted via Webmail to their census cell phones with the details of forms submitted.

Online Census Forms

On delivery of the census forms to the household the enumerator would ask the "Hi-Five" questions. These included whether or not members of the household would like to submit their forms online. If one of more individuals indicated that they might want to do this, then they were given an Internet PIN for everyone in the household to use. The household ID (district, sub-district, meshblock and dwelling) forms the Internet ID for the entire household. A sealed slip was given out to the household. This contains the PIN. Although everyone within the household used this one combination of ID and password, their information would still be secure as each individual's had to be entered within the one session. That is, a session could not be saved and resumed. However the different individuals could enter their information at different times. Once each dwelling or individual form was completed the system would batch the submissions and text the enumerator on a trice-daily schedule. They would get a cumulative report of the number of forms of each type submitted for each household.