The push to digital in this year's Census has descended into chaos with calls for the national survey to be postponed until more paper forms are made available and boycotted over concerns about online privacy.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) this week scrambled to add hundreds of extra call centre workers to deal with an overwhelming number of requests from people - especially the elderly - who have no internet service and haven't been able to access paper forms.
There have been more 400,000 applications for paper forms and an extra 400 phone operators have been hired in recent days to deal with the demand, according to Chris Libreri, GM of the ABS census and statistical network services division.
Print and paper industry initiative Keep Me Posted backs the consumer's right to choose how they want to fill out the survey and advised those who prefer paper to call the Census paper request system on 1300 820 275.
Independent senator Nick Xenophon called for Tuesday night's Census to be delayed because of the distress it's causing elderly Australians. "This census may go down in history, for the unenviable statistic, that there will be a record number of Australians that won't be participating in it," he said.
The Pensioners Association says those without a computer are concerned they'll be fined $180 a day if they don’t receive paper forms and return them on time.
Libreri says the fines are a last resort: “Penalties will only be applied when there is defiance.” However, The Guardian newspaper reports that the ABS has referred 667 Australians for prosecution since 1990 for failing to complete their census – with one person facing a $10,000 fine.
Elsewhere, privacy advocates called for a boycott, warning there can be no guarantee that information to be gathered by the ABS and retained for four years will remain secure.
"You only have limited options if you want to protect your privacy from the Australian Bureau of Statistics," said Crikey.com. "But you have an ethical right to do nothing to cooperate with the destruction of your privacy."
Bill McLennan, former head of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, says the ABS cannot legally compel people to provide their names and addresses.
"The Australian Bureau of Statistics is collecting the name and address of each Australian, will retain that information and will match the census records with various administrative records held by government (health, tax, New Start, social security and so on). Australians will be given no say in how their information is used as the ABS has said the provision of ‘name and address’ is compulsory," McLennan argues.
The ABS says 65% of Australians are expected to complete the census online this year - twice the online rate of 2011. The federal government estimated that the push to digital would save taxpayers "up to $100 million" and conserve 327,000 kilograms of paper.
PMG last year won the $5.2 million contract to print the 2016 Census but the ABS has not revealed the exact number of paper forms that it ordered. PMG has not commented.
