Australian government may take leave of its census Australia's government is considering radically restructuring its national census. The exercise, which cost $AU440 million in 2011, is under the microscope as the government assembles its 2015 budget. Fairfax reports that the census could be delayed or replaced with a smaller survey. The Australian is less certain of the …
>Just look to the cancellation of the long-form census in Canada.
No suggestion than the census be cancelled in Aus. No suggestion that it be replaced by a "voluntary household survey". Or by universal internet access.
And as to business requirements... the whole point of the suggestion is that the money could be better spent meeting business requirements by moving from a 5 year cycle to a 3 month cycle.
In years of researching past censuses and filling in past censuses I've concluded that each extra page just adds 10% of useful information, and the extra information is rapidly useless after page 2. Pick which 90% of information you want and you could revert back to the pre-war one-page census.
Long census data was/is mostly being collected for business, which has resulted in the census being yet another subsidy. Business should pay for it's own data collection and not have access to the power and threat of imprisonment to collect it.
But Australia would do well to look at Canada and how the opposition can spin changes to mean almost anything and touch a nationalistic pride in those new to Canada. For some filling out the form meant they were Canadian. Others recall when they couldn't say they were Canadian on the form and see it as yet another flawed method of collecting data the government already had. Fodder for anyone wanting to attack the changes, or just attack.
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