CONCLUSION
The evidence shows there is significant public opposition to the retention of census forms. This evidence also shows that if census forms were kept, the cooperation of the public in terms of the level of response in the census and the quality of data provided would suffer.
Very serious implications follow for all users of census data and other official statistics, particularly for users of population estimates. Serious impacts would be likely on electoral redistributions, on the distribution of funds to the States and Territories, and for the host of government and private sector organisations who use census data for a variety of purposes, including infrastructure planning, service delivery, and program evaluation.
The value for research purposes of retaining census forms is tenuous, at best.
Many judgements have been made over the years supporting the destruction of census forms by:
- the current and previous Director-Generals of Australian Archives, following independent investigations of the value and costs of retaining census forms from the 1986, 1991 and 1996 Censuses,
- successive Federal Governments, starting with a decision by Mr Sneddon in 1971 and including a decision in 1979 by the then Treasurer, Mr Howard, to reject a recommendation from the Australian Law Reform Committee for census form retention,
- the previous Privacy Commissioner,
- the Australian Statistics Advisory Council, and
- all recent Australian Statisticians.
In authorising the destruction of 1996 Census forms the Director-General of the Australian Archive also authorised the destruction of forms from future censuses in the following terms:
"A disposal authority allowing the destruction of name-identified records for 1996 and beyond will be issued. If circumstances alter for subsequent Census records then these disposal arrangements can be reviewed".
In the view of the ABS, there have been no significant changes in circumstances which would warrant any change in the current policy of census form destruction. Indeed to the contrary, the AGB McNair research conducted after the 1996 Census suggests community opposition to any change in policy is now stronger that ever.
The ABS strongly holds the view that all information in the form of name-identified or identifiable documents containing information collected under the Census and Statistics Act, 1905 should be defined as exempt from the provisions of the Archives Act. The retention of census forms or identified statistical records raises significant privacy issues. The retention of census forms would also have a significant impact on the capacity of the ABS to conduct an effective census, and indeed all its other statistical collection activities. For these reasons the ABS considers that decisions on the destruction or retention of census forms are matters for the Government and the Parliament.
ABS considers the best way of ensuring this is for:
- the Archives Act to be amended to exempt all confidential information obtained pursuant to the Census and Statistics Act, 1905, and
- the Census and Statistics Act, 1905 to be amended to make it mandatory for census forms (and other statistical forms) to be destroyed after the statistical data have been extracted.
Australian Bureau of Statistics
July 1997
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