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from the if-in-doubt,-challenge-the-system dept.
The independent senator Nick Xenophon says he will refuse to include his name on his census form on Tuesday, knowing he could be prosecuted for it, because he is not convinced the national census does not present a huge privacy risk.
He says he is willing to make himself a test case to challenge the government's ability to prosecute Australians for withholding their name from the census and he has not changed his mind despite speaking to the chief statistician of the Bureau of Statistics.
"I understand that, by refusing to provide my name, I will be given a notice under the act to comply and the $180-a-day fine starts from then," Xenophon said on Monday. "I will contest any such notice and, by doing so, I will in effect turn it into a test case for the ability of this request.
"In the meantime, I will be seeking amendments to section 14 of the act so that a person cannot be prosecuted if they fail to provide their name. In other words, it will ensure such information is unambiguously non-compulsory.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 09 2016, @05:30AM
The census topic just came up in a meeting at $work. 5 out of 6 are intending to not put their name & address on the census.
Even the former deputy privacy commissioner of NSW is not going to do it [theage.com.au]. The change to include names and addresses came up in the last two censuses as well, and was shot down in flames on privacy grounds. Nothing has changed, other than that this time they're steaming ahead and hoping they'll get away with it. This is what gets on my goat. If there was an actual, well reasoned, well supported, debated and agreed upon change I'd grudgingly agree. What they're doing is ramming it in the back door and pretending it's not a big deal, all the evidence to the contrary. That is not on, and to me not only justifies civil disobedience, but morally requires it.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by aristarchus on Tuesday August 09 2016, @07:04AM
So, crap, now there are no Austrailians on the planet? And this is supposed to be a bad thing?
(Score: 3, Informative) by MostCynical on Tuesday August 09 2016, @08:52AM
We'll still be here, just with less *statistical certainty*
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Informative) by aristarchus on Tuesday August 09 2016, @09:04AM
We'll still be here, just with less *statistical certainty*
And isn't that just always the way it is, in the Land Down Under, where women, umm, something, and Men Thunder? G'day, mates.
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Tuesday August 09 2016, @07:50AM
...What they're doing is ramming it in the back door and pretending it's not a big deal, all the evidence to the contrary.
This is just some more of Bushfire Tony's leftover extremist baggage that we can't seem to avoid.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday August 09 2016, @11:43AM
For reference, what is the current value of $work?