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The #CensusFail Submission

The #CensusFail Submission has been cited by the Castan Centre (Monash Uni) in their submission and Bill McLennan (Former Head of the ABS) in his submission, who stated:

I was impressed by the #Censusfail submission to this Committee. It very clearly showed some good analysis that would have helped the ABS to run a better Census if it had done such research before developing the Census proposal. It also saved me from explaining the current thrust in government with the Government Data Linkage Project, and its likely links to the Census.


About the Author

This submission is published under the (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 AU) Licence and is best viewed on a desktop/laptop sized screen. There is a PDF version of this submission here (2.4MB) also available (swear words redacted) at the Inquiry site. The PDF is maximised for viewing on a screen rather than printing. An .epub version for generic tablet is available here (2.62 MB).

'The #CensusFail Submission' to the to the 'Inquiry into the preparation, administration and management of the 2016 Census' is written by Rosie Williams BA (Sociology). You can contact me here or find out more about me here. At the time of writing I have not received any payment in relation to the research or preparation of this submission, the survey which is included or for any other action or statement related to the 2016 census or the #CensusFail campaign.

The submission is based on research which goes back 45 years, includes an explanation and examination of the privacy principles as they relate to data linkage projects run by the Commonwealth government and includes feedback from a survey of responses to this year's census that was completed by over 500 people. I have carefully documented #CensusFail throughout and have used this documentation (in the Appendices) to reference the submission. If you would like to read only about the survey, go straight to Community Response.

This submission is written solely by myself without public editing and does not imply endorsement of any particular person or group however many people have contributed to the pool of knowledge I have drawn from at the #CensusFail hashtag. A list of those who wish to specifically endorse this submission is below (larger screens only).

Special thanks to James Smith (whom I've had no communication with) for the dedication he has shown to community in placing the original FOI request through Right to Know which I discovered and lead to #CensusFail

In summary, the #CensusFail Submission argues:

  • The government has never had any legislative right to combine data from the census with administrative or law enforcement datasets.
  • The manner in which the government undertook the decision to de-anonymise census data for linkage with administrative datasets was inadequate and inappropriate.
  • At no time has the ABS attempted to educate the public about the uses to which 2016 census data will be put.
  • The oversight mechanisms originally in place to govern cross portfolio data integration projects have been removed in favour of less transparent and legally inappropriate mechanisms.

    • It is the proposition of this submission that the above considerations have impacted significantly on the data quality of the 2016 Census and that this is directly relevant to the Inquiry's Terms of Reference: a, b, e & f.


    To endorse this submission click on the button to make a Tweet. That tweet will be embedded below. Not on Twitter? Email Rosie at atcra @ protonmail.com

    Hello Rosie I would like to add my support to your submission at https://whistleblower.network/submission Keep up the excellent work! Thanks, Ross Higson

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