Well then. Here’s ah… Here’s this thing. The Australian Bureau of Statistics has had to issue an apology over its postal vote barcodes, of all bloody things, after one member of the voting public got a uh… fairly cheeky surprise.

If you think I’m apologising for that cheap pun you’ve got rocks in your heads.

The yarn goes that each postal vote in the upcoming marriage equality “survey” is issued with a unique barcode. That barcode contains a string of automated letters and numbers that are unique to the individual voter and helps the system process the returned votes.

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The algorithm the ABS used generated some two quintillion (in numbers, that’s 2,000,000,000,000,000,000) different combinations. What it didn’t do, however, was filter out any words or phrases that could potentially be generated that might come across a little on-the-nose. Presumably, this was due to the fact that the ABS thought the probability of something wonky being generated and mailed out was so minute that it wasn’t worth worrying about.

Only ah… that’s exactly what happened. Exhibit A:

Ahhh boy. Ahh boy oh boy oh boy.

It’s worth noting, for whatever it’s worth, that the original source of this photo claims it came “from a friend of a friend,” but if it’s a gee-up then at least it’s a well crafted one.

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Nevertheless, the stink of the incident was so great that it forced the ABS to issue an official apology via deputy statistician Jonathan Palmer, who stated “The ABS acknowledges that in issuing 16 million barcodes it did not check and remove words and phrases that may be offensive. The ABS apologises to the survey recipient and will issue a new form if requested.”

If your own barcode seems a little off you can contact the ABS directly via this link.

The Bureau also reminded people not to post their full barcode online (or the full barcode of anyone else for that matter) in order to avoid potentially compromising privacy and security.