700 million ways to take a snapshot: [1 Edition]
Vanessa Walker * Social affairs writer, John Stapleton. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 08 Aug 2001: 5.
Abstract
While the 14th census mostly ran smoothly, it did not go off without hitches. On Monday night, the ABS hotline received 13,000 calls from people without a form, 4000 from those unsure of what to do if they were away from home, 2000 with privacy questions and 700 wanting to know if the census was compulsory. The bureau's website had 173,000 hits on Monday.
Twenty members of the 105th signal squadron, based at the Simpson Barracks in Watsonia, Victoria, headed home at 11pm to fill in their forms, a task the ABS said would take about 20 minutes. Captain Lisa Frewster, 30, said she was looking forward to the novelty of her census response joining the time capsule.
FROM suburban families to the city homeless, from an army platoon on Mt Hotham to a submarine crew in the Great Australian Bight, the nation united last night to answer the 50 questions of the 2001 census on 19 million people.
Combined, the 700 million responses will give the Australian Bureau of Statistics a snapshot of the population as it was on August 7, with the full picture to be revealed in July next year.
While the 14th census mostly ran smoothly, it did not go off without hitches. On Monday night, the ABS hotline received 13,000 calls from people without a form, 4000 from those unsure of what to do if they were away from home, 2000 with privacy questions and 700 wanting to know if the census was compulsory. The bureau's website had 173,000 hits on Monday.
Gordon Knox, 31, and wife Louise, 27, sat down with 10-month-old Thomas in their Canberra home last night to fulfil their civic duty.
"I think it's everyone's obligation," Mr Knox said. "It helps the Government to determine where to put schools in the right places, hospitals and services."
Twenty members of the 105th signal squadron, based at the Simpson Barracks in Watsonia, Victoria, headed home at 11pm to fill in their forms, a task the ABS said would take about 20 minutes. Captain Lisa Frewster, 30, said she was looking forward to the novelty of her census response joining the time capsule.
Census staff fanned out across state capitals last night to talk to tens of thousands of homeless people under bridges, on park benches and in shelters.
At Sydney's Matthew Talbot Hostel, more than 200 homeless men filled out the form.
Shane Ell, 27, said he didn't mind filling out the census, although he didn't understand why he was being asked certain questions. "They asked if you had used the internet in the past 24 hours, stuff like that," he said.
Afewerki Nuguse, 53, from Eritrea, who has been living at the the hostel for 2 1/2 years, said he had filled out the form but didn't understand why. But Dale MacKenzie, 27, said answering the questions "doesn't worry me".
Case worker Sam Gooch said the majority of the homeless had been co-operative.
Australia has the world's second-highest census form completion rate, at 98.5 per cent.
An army of 30,000 people will collect the forms by August 27.
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