The Australian Bureau of Statistics has collected the same type of census information for more than a century, and most Australians have dutifully filled out the forms every five years, returning household details like the age, wage, occupation type and religious affiliation for occupant 1, 2, 3 etc.
This year is different, this year the ABS is demanding (they say they're asking but the request is backed up by fines, which are backed up by policemen) the names of those occupants, information the ABS will retain for 4 years.
Since the announcement the pushback from the public has grown ever stronger, with voiced concerns including data breaches by malicious actors and changes of policy by future governments.
The change is so unprecedented that a lot of people were waiting for a retraction, believing that at some point the ABS would see the danger of this change; but it never came.
As census night looms, several high profile public officials and even one Senator (Nick Xenophon, pictured) have broken ranks and publicly declared their intention to defy the demand, leaving the name fields blank. For this they face fines of $180/day until the details are surrendered.
Tonight's the big night, and unless there's a last minute retraction, millions of Australians are going to wilfully and enthusiastically lie about pretty much everything, making this an expensive, time consuming game of brinksmanship culminating in the contamination of a century of painstakingly collected data.
In the words of John Cowperthwaite, "Statistics are the eyes and ears of the bureaucrat, the politician, the socialistic reformer. Only by statistics can they know, or at least have any idea about, what is going on in the economy. Cut off those eyes and ears, destroy those crucial guidelines to knowledge, and the whole threat of government intervention is almost completely eliminated"
