Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

There is an amendment that has been circulated in the name of Senator Stott Despoja, and I will not be proceeding with that. I thank the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance and Administration for his assurance. I realise that he cannot bind the action of every single government and parliament for the next 99 years with regard to what they might do. The parliamentary secretary is powerful but not that powerful. I think that the clarification he has given about the restrictions on how the information can be used—or, more importantly, cannot be used—is worth while. The Democrats are keen to ensure that there is absolutely minimal prospect of the information that is retained by consent being used by anybody other than the National Archives or for any purpose other than what has clearly been outlined. So I thank the parliamentary secretary for his words.

One of the purposes of the census that is being collected later this year is to determine official population estimates. That information does get used to allocate Commonwealth funds to state, territory and local governments. That is a wider issue. As a Queenslander whose funds from the federal level are currently under threat by grasping southerners trying to grab money away from us, I should say that it is a worthwhile reminder for all of us to do all we can to encourage people in our own states to fill in the census form. It can add up to an extra few dollars and cents towards services in our own states. It is a reminder of the significant impact that people filling out the census fully can have on a whole range of other issues.

I also take the opportunity, having been reminded by the parliamentary secretary’s comments, to mention the very important work of the enormous number of people who work as census collectors during this period. I have a recollection of following at my mother’s heels, when I was much, much smaller, when she was a collector back in about 1971. It is a very important task, and the more help they have in encouraging and assuring people that there is no risk in filling out the forms and no danger of the information being misused—whether it be tomorrow or in 98 years time—then the better statistics we will get when the census forms are filled out.