You know something, Labour was always going to go into full-on brown-neck mode against both the Maori Party and HH but it seems faintly unsporting of Harawira to make it so damn easy.

Then…

Not really – the next time Harawira trots out the argumentum ad Hitlerium how about someone grows a pair, and asks him to point to exactly where…

Needless to say, the Harawira-Brash interview is like a gang war – you're not gunning for either side, but it's fun to watch.

But the census involves questions more complex than that, and it would be awkward to collect a lot of that data.

Departure and arrival records are already shared with many agencies, and births and deaths are a matter…

There are pretty serious privacy implications there in terms of `official…

Sampling, and Census less frequently would be the best of both worlds :)

I think that this…

Various countries such as Germany and Switzerland have moved away from a census and used sampling and official records instead. I'd guess this would work well in NZ where the baseline exit and entry numbers would…

There was some argument about that from interested parties in the media.

But they have already done the planning. Delivery can happen any time once the relvance of factors you've mentioned like displacement are decided upon – and the processing capacity from their damaged Christchurch centre is replaced. That is a matter of…

I don't know what the law said in 1931 or 1941, but the Statistics Act 1975 is in absolutist terms. The Government *must* hold a census, or amend the law.

Conversely, the amount of planning required from stats nz is that much more…

Reliance on Census data by both business and public sectors is far more pervasive now than 70 and 80 years ago. And 5 years is a relatively longer wait now than then, given the pace of…

Only if the census never happens. I don't imagine that will be the case.

It has happened twice before (1931 & 1941), why is the 2011 census any different?
The circumstances aren't important: Depression; War; Earthquake, what is notable is that in both previous cases the 5 year cycle wasn't broken…

Why can’t real journalists do this kind of analysis?

When have you seen a news article that has mentioned standing orders – most journalists don’t appear to know much about them, let alone attempt to interpret them alongside legislation.

"But it is difficult to know Hone's true motivations in going, and in…

Five years of law school?

I can't blame journalists for…

noice

Nat, a la imbroglio.

Should we be Counting down the days?

...and via the wonders of digital interaction
the logos of the major party donors could float
in a cloud over each and every…

Wasn't he co-leader outside Parliament for over two years before entering Parliament? And one could say that folks who party voted Green (and members who participated in the democratic list formation) didn't vote for Mike Ward and Catherine…

Haven't had a decent lynching for ages

I so want to see this contest. Perhaps he could kick off his campaign with a speech in Orewa.

No.

1. The Electoral Act doesn't recognise the existence of party leaders at all.
2. If you don't like him don't vote for him.

Don Brash's being the…

Craig Y

I can see Mana getting 1.5-2% at the general election and hence 2 or 3 MPs. It's even possible that in the unlikely event of a tight result,…

I expect it'll be the Hapu Party, which is only…

That assumes that his…

Honestly, trying to figure out what’s flitting through Hone Harawira’s mind at any given moment is like trying to do one of the super-sized sudoku puzzles with a hangover.…

Well, it was cancelled, not postponed, right? So the next one is 2016?

Only if the census never happens. I don't imagine that will be the case.

So they've still been screwed out of their option to switch…

After the next census is held. Given that there is a general election this year, even had the census been held this year, the Maori option, and the redrawing of the boundaries would have been…

Agree. Hard to get worked up about this instance when there has been so much extravagant pork-barrelling in the last couple of years.

Oh, frak that — the concern trolling about the public purse gets trotted out by political hack too bloody often.

Well, you know something — democracy costs. So does a police force and judiciary in a national with any pretensions to civilization. YMMV whether whether…