I know everyone will be thinking about Christmas, the holidays, what we're doing for New Year and so on, but I just want to raise something that's coming up in February and March 2023 and that's the national census.

Wait! Whoa, hear me out here! 

I know the last one was a right royal muck up and that really, it’s not all that exciting right, but actually it's pretty damned important to you whoever you are; and here's why.

Because you (unless you are very young and have very odd reading habits) pay tax. And a big factor in how much of that money comes back into this district from Wellington is how many of us are recorded as being here.  

For instance, I remember in 2018 when the last census kind of happened that we were told that for every person in Central who didn't fill in the forms, the district lost around $1,300 in health funding.  

I'm guessing the same might well apply for roading, housing, education and on and on, so each failed form is a lot of lost dollars.

So please, make one of your New Year's resolutions to fill in the census when it happens and to encourage others to do so.

No use our hard-earned tax dollars going somewhere else when it could be coming here, right?