Science fiction
OPINION: Last week's announcement of Prime Minister’s new Science and Technology Advisory Council hasn’t gone down too well in the science community.
Milking It was under the impression we were all supposed to take five minutes on March 7 to fill out a simple form. And yet, two months later, millions of taxpayer dollars were still being spent (wasted?) trying to convince the laggards to complete the form. Estimates dated early April suggested the $285m census had already blown out by $37m!
It's likely that those who haven't done it year, aren't going to, so let's stop the waste and move on.
And in other 'census cock-up' news, we've heard numerous reports of households who registered when asked (sometimes more than once), completed the survey, posted the survey - only to have a census clipboard carrier knock on the door asking why the household wasn't registered!
Who was in charge of this census cluster, you ask? Dr Deborah Russell and Meka Whaitiri. Say no more!
