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]

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

[Scotty72]

lol, too funny.

Why?

Kiwi doesn't like competition is posting polls?

[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.

[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!!

[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...

[ameerat42]

I'm honest! That's why I'm telling this liem

[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.