Census: Are you 100% honest?

[Scotty72]

Yes, it is only 3 more sleeps until we are forced to fill out the 5 - yearly census.

Interestingly, many other countries ask many fewer than our 60 odd questions: the US census for eg has about a dozen very basic questions.

My question regards how politically you base your answers.

For example, it was suggested to me that I should tick a particular religion so that another particular religion does not get a higher percentage of responders.

or

If you happen to be a bicycle advocate, you may ask your mates to tick that method of transport in order to win more funds for bike paths. Motoring or public transport groups may well try to similarly manufacture a particular result too.

I know several public school teachers (like me) who send their kids to private schools simply because of the dreadful under-funding of public education. A push is on for us to say our kids go to public school, in order that they get better funding so we can send our own kids there.

Then, there is the thinking that this is none of the government's business and you may not trust them that all the data is private and names are not kept on file (which makes you wonder why they collect it in the first place). If so, you may be tempted to tell a fib or two.

So, do you think the Census is a legitimate exercise or one that, by its very nature is overly intrusive and political in nature and therefore not accurate?

[kiwi]

lol, too funny.

[William]

:D I'll start filling mine out tomorrow, Takes to long to fill out on the night , I wont have any time for AP :eek: nothing much is gunna change before Tuesday anyway ;)

[Scotty72]

lol, too funny.

Why?

Kiwi doesn't like competition is posting polls? :lol:

[Tannin]

We have been taking a census every few years since this nation was founded. None of the information you provide on the form is sensitive in any way, or could not be easily discovered by anyone who put their mind to the task. The information is useful for many purposes. Names are useless for this sort of data collection.

If you are still worried about your privacy, cancel your Internet connection RIGHT NOW!

The numbers can tell us all sorts of useful and interesting things. Admittedly, most of these are interesting only to a town planner, a government administrator, a university researcher, or a businessman pondering expansion plans, but here is one thing that is perhaps of interest to all.

This concerns that nasty, borderline racist email doing the rounds, telling you to "tick a particular religion" (they mean Christian) so that another "particular religion" (they mean Islam) does not get a higher percentage of responders. The ironic thing is that the clueless and nameless idiot who wrote that email could have (but failed to) consulted actual census data from the 2006 and discovered that his paranoid fantasies were exactly that - paranoid fantasies without the slightest factual backing. His (or her) appeal, in other words, was "lie on the census form because I'm too clueless to look up the data that was gathered on the last census form!"

In fact, our clueless friend has nothing to worry about at all. As of the 2006 census, 30% of Australians declared themselves mainstream Protestant, 26% Catholic, 3% Baptist or similar, and 3% Orthodox, for a total of 64% Christian. The next largest group is the atheists at 19%, then "not stated" (probably mostly agnostics) at 12%, then Buddists at 2.1%. Muslims accounted for a miniscule 1.7% of all Australians or, to put it another way, for every Muslim in Australia there are 1.3 Buddists, 11 atheists, 7 agnostics, 18 protestants, 15 catholics, and about 4 Christians from the minor sects. As you can see from the census data, an Islamic takeover is not even remotely on the menu.

PS: fill it out online. Takes 5 minutes. easy as pie. I did mine last week.

[JohnRA]

Did it on line a day or so ago ...... Dead simple.
And I don't give a s##t what the government knows about me.

[ameerat42]

(So? Any consensus on the census?)

[farmer_rob]

The government knows it all anyway. (I have to fill out an agricultural census on a regular basis, and a vineyard census annually. I'm sick of it. On the other hand, I make use of the "Main" census information in my current day job, and the information garnered from the census is certainly useful for local government planning purposes.)

I try to be as truthful as possible, but do resent the intrusion.

[WhoDo]

Meh. Once in every 5 years is not much of an intrusion for me. I don't see it being useful more than 12 months from now though. I tell the truth out of habit. :D

[ricktas]

No one has knocked on my door or left a census book here yet, so I might miss out on wasting my Tuesday evening filling in the thing

[William]

:( I thought the same thing Rick, They delivered just after Midday

[geoffsta]

I'll tell you how useless the census is.
A few years ago, our community was forced into having the sewage put on. And put a sewage pond on a nearby farm.
The waterboard were determined to have it on, and were going to charge each rate payer $8,000 to have it run past their house block.
7 members of the community and myself believed that this was a bit rich, and contacted the waterboard to try and reduce the rate.
Using the previous census data we able to convince the waterboard the our community was a low income, high pensioner area.
With the help of the waterboard and the Census data we were able to convince the government to give our community a hardship grant.
This reduced the $8000 bill down to $800. And the sewage pumped to another main sewage line 15 kilometres away. Ending the need for a sewage pond.
So if you think the sensus is useless, think again. When communities need grants to improve their area, the Sensus data is a god send.

[Scotty72]

Ok. I get the privacy aspect being kinda redundant. It doesn't really bother me.

I also agree that the religious aspect was pure stupidity.

But, I'm still interested in any manipulation.

For eg. If you have sympathies towards the disabled, will you perhaps tick the box that says you need home support - in order to hopefully attract more money to the sector?

There has been much lobbying: are we listening?

Scotty

[kiwi]

For goodness sake, answer the thing honestly as 99% probably do and any silly bugger doing stupid answers will just be a statistical blip.

I really get tired of the constant "big brother" conspiracy theories with every single topic.

[fess67]

I tell the truth. If I don't my wife finds out!! :lol:

[Scotty72]

For goodness sake, answer the thing honestly as 99% probably do and any silly bugger doing stupid answers will just be a statistical blip.

I really get tired of the constant "big brother" conspiracy theories with every single topic.

Hmmm. The existence of lobby groups is a conspiracy... hmmm

There were enough 'silly buggers' to have Jedi recognised as a religion in a past census.

Fair enough. It's easier to be destructive.

I just wish this was said during another thread (about a tax) where govt conspiracies were abound :)

[ving]

For goodness sake, answer the thing honestly as 99% probably do and any silly bugger doing stupid answers will just be a statistical blip.

I really get tired of the constant "big brother" conspiracy theories with every single topic.

Ditto that... make sure that if u lie on it u are wearing aluminium foil on your head... you dont want the govt reading your mind!

Sent from my TR718D

[Sezzy]

The census is about as useful as NAPLAN testing...they already know the answers, they're just trying to ruin my Tuesday night... :D

[ameerat42]

I'm honest! That's why I'm telling this lie:om

[Steve Axford]

Ditto that... make sure that if u lie on it u are wearing aluminium foil on your head... you dont want the govt reading your mind!

Sent from my TR718D

Or the aliens talking to you.

[Tikira]

We are involved in family history and know how important the census is for us to find out about our ancestors from over 100 years ago. I am ticking the box to keep the information (question 60) so that future generations (over 100 years from now) can find out about me and how I lived and what I thought. Apart from that the information is very useful in the planning for future of our country.

Wayne

[Ms Monny]

yep, I fill it out with gusto....I love to fill out forms!! Hey, that should be one of my secrets from the other thread! ;)

Anyway, I tell the truth and I also don't park illegally or throw rubbish from the car!!

[Speedway]

I just fill it out and send it off. Thats it.
Keith.

[ving]

I bet i know which one scotty didnt pick ;)

[Bax]

Filled it out the other day, it only takes 20-30 minutes.

I tell the truth, although it is slightly off, I usually ride my bike to work, but it's been too cold, thus we've both been taking separate cars to work.

[Scotty72]

Filled it out the other day, it only takes 20-30 minutes.

I tell the truth, although it is slightly off, I usually ride my bike to work, but it's been too cold, thus we've both been taking separate cars to work.

See, this is partly what I'm talking about: while some like to be belligerent and paint my question as a reaction to a conspiracy about wearing tin helmets so aliens don't read your thoughts, these little white lies people tell in order to tell the story as they would actually like it - not as it actually is.

Your bike one is a great eg.

Because the census is always in the depths of winter, many people who might ride their bike to work on a normal day, may not if it is a very cold / rainy day. They then may decide to lie because they think it is not reflecting what they think it is normal.

Or, you might do a few hours cash in hand work but, choose to not share that with the census people in case the ATO do read the census.

Thank you for a sensible answer - now, if only the others could see past their tin-foil helmets. :lol:

[FallingHorse]

Can I have my tin-foil helmet in a colour of my own choice, silver is so yesterday:rolleyes:

[kujayee]

The Government already knows more than enough, so no worries.

[Scotty72]

The Government already knows more than enough, so no worries.

Again, NOT the point of the question. :(

Do you tell 'white' lies in order to massage the truth?

[CAP]

It would be nice if the first question reads....... "has there been any significant change in your household or lifestyle since the last Census?"..... answer NO..... simple.
Names and date etc, then send off.

We are going to do the right thing tonight, but just out of interest, would one be chained, stoned and whipped if they were not to complete and return the census?

[kiwi]

Done, takes a bit longer to fill in for 6 people than 1 !!!

[CAP]

Done, takes a bit longer to fill in for 6 people than 1 !!!

How come you can fill it out online at anytime but the old fashioned manual way is tonight?????
It actually thought the Census is supposed to be a "SNAPSHOT"

[I @ M]

How come you can fill it out online at anytime but the old fashioned manual way is tonight?????
It actually thought the Census is supposed to be a "SNAPSHOT"

Maybe the govt has finally caught up with the tech that good camera manufacturers have had for a while now, time delay shutter release for the snapshot. :confused013 :rolleyes:

[Xenedis]

As intensely privacy-conscious as I am, I don't have an inherent issue with the census -- even the question about religion.

The information it collects is otherwise in the possession of various government departments in some form or another anyway.

I don't lie on my tax return and I don't lie on the census.

So, in answer to your initial questions, I consider it legitimate, but I don't find it too intrusive or political.

As to whether it's accurate, that relies not only on the data processing capabilities of the department which manages it, but the honesty of the people completing the form.

What's mildly annoying is that, in my case, questions 45 (How did the person get to work on Tuesday, 9 August 2011?) and 54 (re how many registered motor vehicles owned by residents were parked here on 09/08/2011) are going to be skewed.

My car is currently in for a service and hence isn't garaged here today. Normally it is, and if it were here right now, I'd be able to indicate so on the form.

I also didn't go to work today; I worked overnight, but arrived there late last night and departed in the early hours of this morning. The form doesn't want to know about my journey home, so while I was actually at work on the date of 09/08/2011, from the perspective of the census form, I wasn't there, as I didn't arrive there on today's date.

[ameerat42]

Now I don't usually SQUARE!!! on forums, but having got to the last page of the on-line census form I clicked on a link for "more information". Result was: I did not get the information I was after AND I lost the [insert favourite expletetive here] almost completed form without having pressed the "SUBMIT" button. So I got on the phone to them, and now I have been listening to, "Thank you for your patience. The next available agent will be with you shortly." for the last 15 minutes.

Now I'm not a complete dill with the InterNOT, but the.... OH STOP IT! They finally answered, so I gave them my beef and got a new number.

LESSON LEARNT: A faulty form. You can't navigate to a "more info" page and keep your completed info.

AAAHHHH!!!!m

[virgal_tracy]

There were enough 'silly buggers' to have Jedi recognised as a religion in a past census.

They have never allowed Jedi to be recognised as an official religion but they will allow druidism. Radio National had a discussion on this Monday because they won't allow Jedi to be recognised but they will allow Scientology and the dicsussion was about what is the difference, especially as Jedi and druidism are essentially the same thing whereas Scientology is the creation of a scifi writer.

[Scotty72]

They have never allowed Jedi to be recognised as an official religion but they will allow druidism. Radio National had a discussion on this Monday because they won't allow Jedi to be recognised but they will allow Scientology and the dicsussion was about what is the difference, especially as Jedi and druidism are essentially the same thing whereas Scientology is the creation of a scifi writer.

Ok, wires crossed. Maybe it was that enough answered Jedi that it should have been recognised. :th3: Surely being a Jedi is more sensible than that other 'way out there' relgion.:lol:

[JM Tran]

Ok, wires crossed. Maybe it was that enough answered Jedi that it should have been recognised. :th3: Surely being a Jedi is more sensible than that other 'way out there' relgion.:lol:

at least being a Jedi doesnt mean you have to 'donate' extortionate amounts of money in order to gain acceptance and move up the wellbeing ladder ie. Scientology!

[jasevk]

I was rather disgusted to get email after email from family and friends urging me to indicate my religion to prevent a mosque being built in my suburb, or to prevent Christmas being banned.

When I read all these ridiculous emails with extremely racist undertones, I realized I could no longer call Australia a proudly multicultural nation.

[enduro]

People worried about what the "government knows" about them should be more worried about what private commercial enterprises know. Statistical data derived from the census is clean of identity and for free, you can get a lot of information from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. If you like, you can pay for more information searches.

Information you submit intentionally or accidentally to commercial agencies is bought, sold traded, stolen and actively used for a variety of purposes including reforming your purchasing habits.

[kiwi]

I was rather disgusted to get email after email from family and friends urging me to indicate my religion to prevent a mosque being built in my suburb, or to prevent Christmas being banned.

When I read all these ridiculous emails with extremely racist undertones, I realized I could no longer call Australia a proudly multicultural nation.

Precisely

[Scotty72]

People worried about what the "government knows" about them should be more worried about what private commercial enterprises know. Statistical data derived from the census is clean of identity and for free, you can get a lot of information from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. If you like, you can pay for more information searches.

Information you submit intentionally or accidentally to commercial agencies is bought, sold traded, stolen and actively used for a variety of purposes including reforming your purchasing habits.

I know this doesn't remove me from the radar completely but, I never participate in 'Fly-Buy' type rewards / loyalty schemes nor do I enter competitions etc.

Nor do I fill in surveys or 'warranty cards' etc.

These are nothing short of data mining schemes.

As a result, I very rarely receive annoying phone calls, emails or addressed letters with ads / schemes / scams that are tailored to my habits. :)

It is always amazing how much personal/compromising data people are willing to give over.

Scotty

[bluey1960]

When you have people referring to themselves as Jedi Knights in the census, I've wondered about this also, but I follow the rules and give them what they want to know honestly. I think it is an inaccurate, inefficient and intrusive yet legitimate exercise.:)

[Scotty72]

When you have people referring to themselves as Jedi Knights in the census, I've wondered about this also, but I follow the rules and give them what they want to know honestly. I think it is an inaccurate, inefficient and intrusive yet legitimate exercise.:)

Nice use of anesis: very fitting for the census :th3:

[ameerat42]

Trust Greek! What a relief.