The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has updated the online Census with an assurance to all Australians — if you lost your Census materials or never received them, you’re not going to receive a fine. Instead, it suggests you chill out and try calling them tomorrow. (Who could have predicted that all those warnings about $180 daily penalties would get people worried? /Sarcasm.)
Here’s the updated message from the ABS that now appears on the Census website:
We are experiencing an extremely high volume of calls. Do not worry if you have not received your Census materials. You will not be fined if you complete your Census after Census night. Try calling again after August 10 when we expect call volumes to reduce.
It would appear the ABS has been inundated with emails and phone calls from paranoid Aussies who can’t complete their Census for whatever reason. As we explained previous article, these fines are only used by the Bureau as a last resort; it’s not like a late fee.
Has anyone completed their Census yet? Did anything stump or surprise you? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Comments
2 responses to “ABS: We’re Not Going To Fine You Tonight, So Please Stop Contacting Us”
Many people I spoke to didn’t know they could complete the Census online before today.
I m trying to do it but it is not working please can you tell me what should I do thx
Aaaahahaha and there site is down.
Still down… looks like it might be tomorrow for me!
I did mine at 6:30PM and it was fine.
How complete my census form?
So much for the assurances that there’s plenty of capacity for people to fill in their census tonight. What a joke! Think the people who devised this on line system should be fined $180 a day until they get this right! Better to go back to the paper system at everyone’s doorstep with collection. At least there’s more of a chance of us getting this monolithic joke over and done with.
Knew that this stupid website would crash. Idiots who thought that 23 million people could fill in their census at once in the same night!