More embarrassing IT glitches have plagued the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ census systems as tens of thousands of Australians are forced to participate in post-census surveys by the troubled agency.
The ABS’s “Census Post Enumeration Survey” will involve 43,000 randomly selected Australians who will be compelled, at risk of prosecution, to provide further information about their involvement in the trouble-plagued ABS census. Targeted households have been told by the ABS that they are required to “pre-register” online or by phone to arrange for a 10-minute phone interview with ABS staff, who will ask them about the census and the information they provided. No opt-out is possible, and those who refuse can be fined under the ABS’ extensive powers.
However, Crikey readers selected by the ABS have reported that efforts to follow instructions have fallen afoul of bureau IT problems. One told us that the ABS website wouldn’t work with the login details sent to her elderly mother. “We phoned the hotline 1800 number, it’s a booking service, they said they are having ‘problems with the survey logins’, they told us the survey people weren’t ready yet either. Not knowing when the ABS is going to interview her is stressful for her.” The interviews are scheduled to commence on September 25 and finish on October 29.
An ABS spokesperson acknowledged “there were log-in issues for a small number of households, which were immediately addressed and resolved. Those who were unable to register have been contacted directly by the ABS.” The Post Enumeration survey, the spokesperson says, is a 10-minute long interview that “is an important part of our census count and we’ve followed up every census since 1966 with this kind of survey. The PES is crucial in ensuring the ABS has as good a count as possible.”
“Participation is compulsory under the Census and Statistics Act 1905.”
The new IT difficulties come after the census night debacle when the entire ABS website was taken offline by the bureau in circumstances that are still being investigated. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has promised that “heads will roll” over the failure. The rate of online census completions is well below the level expected by the ABS, and it has rushed staff to non-compliance hotspots across the country in response what was termed a “crisis” in non-response rates following widespread privacy concerns. ABS staff continue to tell Crikey the level of returns remains below 90%, but the bureau officially insists all is well with the level of returns.
If the response rate is less than 95% it will raise the question of whether the census is sufficiently relevant to be conducted in another five years.
Surely big Brother will know everything about us by 2021 so it would be a case of over-kill.
Zut, perhaps it is simply a make-work project for the ABS? As you note, everything will be known about us in the very new future.
The irony is that the vast majority of the data will be heedlessly given away for free.
I want an OzCard – to access all data held on me by government agencies, at 24hrs notice – and with my copyright as lien on commercial entities hoovering up my details.
Tell me I’m dreamin’
I sympathise with you regards your mother’s nervousness. She may be of the age when dealing with the government was on par with a meeting with the bank manager. It is cruel to put people through this exercise when history tells us the information will be irrecoverable/corrupted/lost without a trace