I think Mrs Clinton famously asked the question:
What difference does it make?
I raise the point because an interesting article was published in the Canberra Times relating to privacy and the census.
Former ABS public servant Ross Hamilton says the bureau is no longer the trustworthy institution many Australians believe it is and he is prepared to face the full force of the law rather than participate in the 2016 census.
The Canberra resident says the ABS engaged in a dodgy process to obtain the unprecedented power to retain personal information gathered in the census to be taken in August and its promises that the data will only be held temporarily are worthless.
Since 1961, all names, addresses and other identifying information supplied in census forms have been destroyed once all the other data was saved.
But this year will be different with the ABS claiming its plan to keep the identifying data will enable “a richer and dynamic statistical picture of Australia”.
My good friend Chris Berg has written about this before.
The thing is that the government already knows a lot about you – from the ATO and the health system (every time you swipe your medicare card). The welfare system too. So the census simply confirms a lot of information the government already knows about you.
Of course there is the added concern of security – the census information could fall into the wrong hands. It could – but again why worry? The Australian government is already automatically sharing your tax information with foreign governments, so there is no doubt that criminals already know a lot about you or could access that information easily.
The only new information the census will reveal is that you are a Jedi Knight, or Sith Lord. This year I think I’ll be an Assassin of the divine order.