The Census 2018 review is out, and it’s pretty clear things didn’t go so well. In fact, the head of Stats NZ Liz MacPherson resigned because of it. The review showed there were problems with the approach and it has meant the response rate was significantly low. Polly Atatoa Carr is an Associate Professor at the University of Waikato, working in Population Studies. Atatoa Carr believes the response rate of 68% for Māori and 65% for Pasifika people’s will lead to new inequities in the development and monitoring of policy and programmes for those communities. Lillian Hanly spoke with Atatoa Carr to find out more and started by asking why Census 2018 became such a mess.