Australian Census 2026 happens in August

I won't be participating. If I choose to put information on the form it will be false info.

Apparently this year the aim is to get most people to do the questions online whereas the 2021 census was still a wholly paper-based exercise.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics since the 2011 Census has been using 'linkage keys' to allow the government to create 'virtual folders' of data cross-linked with other government departments about individuals. This permits un-warranted (literally) access between various government department databases (primarily tax, centrelink. and medicare but others too like federal police, asio, border force, etc.) to extract a 'dosier' about individuals should a government wonk want to do that.

This page is a permanent link to the reply below and its nested replies. See all post replies »

ArishMell · 70-79, M

What's to stop such interdepartmental sharing already though?

You end with "should a government 'wonk' [a title unfamiliar to me] want to do that".

So a supposition that some department might want to ask another agency about some aspect about you.

Surely any information exchange would only be requested for a good reason, if only because no-one has the inclination or time to do so without good reason?

You live in Australia, not China or Russia - are you really afraid of your own government?

I live in the UK and with our very complicated systems we are all one assorted agencies' records - but they are protected by the Official Secrets Act and by for example, different reference numbers for different things.

I do not fear them, but I am far more concerned about the American and Chinese oligarchs running the Internet so commercial companies can watch us for commercial purposes; and of course interception, data theft, sabotage etc by criminal gangs and even hostile nations