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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: 2, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday August 09 2016, @12:43PM
Part of the deal has always been that details of specific people can never be looked up, even by the minister in charge of the department.
Just for the record every country has said that for their own census and its always been a lie. Australia is unlikely to be unique. So you HAVE to fill out your form with the understanding that the craziest bloodthirstiest policeman, judge, border patrol agent, and politician is going to read and take maximum advantage of it.
The census should be honest and read you your miranda rights along the lines of "anything to say can and will be used against you in a court of law".
(Score: 3, Informative) by deimtee on Tuesday August 09 2016, @03:21PM
Apparently we are unique. Every census before this one had no identifying information on the actual form, and they were collected in identical envelopes by the local census collector. It was roughly as anonymous as casting a paper vote.
Could they track you? Sure, if they knew in advance they wanted your specific information, they could secretly mark the form or the envelope. What they couldn't do was look you up afterwards to see what you said.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.