Not A Single One Of You Dirty Census Dodgers Has Been Fined Yet

Remember the enormous shitstorm that was last year’s Census? Aside from being a total technical failure thanks to IBM, it also raised eyebrows over certain elements of its data collection which weren’t quite as anonymous as they had been in the past.

As a result of both the technical problems and the privacy concerns, a whole lotta people noped out and said they wouldn’t do the Census. Which kinda sucks, as the Census is super important to ensure efficient service delivery from the government. That being said, the issues were real and the concerns very, very valid.
As people said they would boycott the Census, the government confirmed that they would pursue dodgers with fines – which meant, at one point, that up to 2 million households were liable. The legislated penalty is $180 for each day the Census is not completed.
Well, maybe not so much. Turns out the Australian Bureau of Statistics hasn’t referred a single person for a fine.
Why? Well, turns out non-completion of the Census was actually far, far lower than expected – and maybe even lower than it has been in previous years. They won’t know til June after a full report, but the ABS reports more than 6,700 people refused to participate in the census in 2016 – as opposed to 13,194 in 2011. Far less.
So if you’re one of the cheeky buggers who dodged the Census for whatever reason – legitimate protest or just because you were lazy and your housemate was using all the bandwidth for porn – you’re more than likely in the clear.
In the end, it comes down to a fairly shitty comms strategy, which the ABS is no doubt aware of. They claimed in an inquiry that they actually didn’t put much emphasis on fines, and even said on the night that no fines would be issued for doing the Census late.
But a submission to the inquiry strongly disagreed – arguing that the focus on potential fines was far stronger than it had been in previous years:

The increased emphasis on fines resulted in a lot of public confusion and fear when the online site went down. Many elderly people with no access to a paper form were terrified of receiving fines and just wanted to do the right thing.

However the 2020 Census goes down, let’s hope there’s a more coherent comms strategy. And a better technical situation. And an all round better Census.

Source: Triple J.
Photo: Getty Images.

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