Australian Bureau of Statistics fear boycott of census as privacy advocates say decision to retain names and addresses puts personal information at risk

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Australians who refuse to answer questions in the 2016 census over privacy concerns surrounding the retention of their personal information could face heavy fines.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) announced in December 2015 it was planning to retain name and address information in the upcoming census in order to create a “richer and dynamic statistical picture” of Australia.

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But privacy and civil rights groups have criticised the decision, which they say constitutes a serious invasion of privacy and put Australians’ personal information at risk. The retention of name and address information – coupled with the other personal information Australians disclose in the census – provides an enormous amount of personal information. Previously, name and address information was removed from the census data.

Some groups, including the Australian Privacy Foundation, have said the ABS failed to explain the changes and called on it to reverse the decision. The foundation’s vice chair, Kat Lane, said Australians would be “alarmed by this sneaky change to the way their personal information will now be stored”.

The blowback from civil liberties groups has alarmed the ABS and raised concerns about the potential for a boycott of the census on privacy grounds.

But failing or refusing to answer a question in the census can be an offence under the Census and Statistics Act 1905 if a person receives a direction from the ABS to complete a form.

Although the maximum penalty is one penalty unit – a $180 fine – a person could receive a series of directions relating to the completion of a single census form, potentially significantly increasing the fine.

A spokesman for the ABS said: “Australians traditionally show strong support for the census and the need to enforce penalties is rare. The ABS prefers to seek the willing cooperation of respondents. However, it is sometimes necessary to use the legislative provisions, in order to maintain the integrity of ABS statistics.

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“For the 2011 census, there were 1,282 notices of direction issued and 78 prosecution actions approved.”

One of the concerns raised over the retention of the additional personal information was how securely that information would be stored.

The ABS said it conducted a privacy impact assessment but the Australian Privacy Foundation said it was a flawed process and was not an independent assessment.

The ABS has also addressed the question of whether the information could be provided to third parties.

While the government could make regulations at some future point to allow information from the census to be disclosed to a third party, a section in the act prevents information of a “personal or domestic” nature if it is likely to enable identification of a person.



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A spokesman for the ABS said the section “precludes the minister from creating an instrument that authorises the disclosure of personal information and/or identifiers, and precludes the ABS from sharing any form of personal information with any other government department, tribunal or law court”.

While the proposal initially appeared to be to collect the names and addresses for an indefinite period, the Australian statistician David Kalisch wrote in Fairfax Media on Friday that he planned to permanently destroy the name and address information by August 2020.

He wrote that the names and addresses would be removed from other personal household information and stored in a separate database in order to provide an additional safeguard.

The date of the census is 9 August.