Australians who failed to fill out the census because of the hours-long website outage will not be fined, and have until September 23 to complete the survey, the federal government says.
Labor is demanding the minister responsible for managing the census, Assistant Treasurer Michael McCormack, resign over the embarrassing website crash, which the Australian Bureau of Statistics said hours earlier could not happen.
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Website meltdown on census night
Thousands of social media users, including the Prime Minister, posted their experience with the ABS website on Tuesday's official census night.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Mr McCormack both tweeted that they had successfully completed the form online, which Mr Turnbull described as "very easy to do".
We filled in the @ABSCensus tonight online - v easy to do. And so important for planning better Govt services & investment for the future
— Malcolm Turnbull (@TurnbullMalcolm) August 9, 2016
Just completed #MyCensus online. Great to play my part in shaping Australia's future, just like millions of Aussies. pic.twitter.com/krYWcq5YDR
— Michael McCormack MP (@M_McCormackMP) August 9, 2016
But millions of Australians were confronted with error messages and the website outage when they tried to log in after dinner on Tuesday night.
The outage was eventually confirmed by the ABS. The organisation had earlier in the day dismissed suggestions an overload of demand could cause the systems to crash.
The ABS & Census websites are currently experiencing an outage. We're working to restore the service. We will keep you updated. Thank you.
— Census Australia (@ABSCensus) August 9, 2016
Mr McCormack is receiving briefings and the ABS IT staff are working to try to get the system back online.
Labor Senator Sue Lines called for Mr McCormack, who was only recently promoted into the ministry after Mr Turnbull's one-seat election victory, to quit.
Well we should have known the govt wouldn't get this right #CensusFail after they brought us #faketradie #fakecensus Minister should resign
— Senator Sue Lines (@linessue) August 9, 2016
Mr McCormack issued a statement just after midnight and said no one would be fined for not submitting their census form overnight.
"I have been in constant communication throughout the night with the [ABS chief statistician] David Kalisch in relation to this matter," he said.
"Those people who have not as yet been able to complete their census forms online will have until 23 September 2016 to participate.
"Australians will not be fined for not submitting their census form last night.
"I am informed by the ABS that a thorough process will be undertaken to ensure all households are counted as part of the census," he said.
The opposition's assistant shadow treasurer Andrew Leigh told Fairfax Media that running the census properly was one of a government's basic tasks.
"There's few more basic tasks to running a government than conducting a census," he said.
But Mr Leigh said the census website failure was consistent with the Prime Ministe's policy to water down the roll-out of Labor's gold-plated fibre-to-the-premise broadband network.
"It looks like the kind of census you would expect from someone who's campaigned to have less broadband, slower connection speeds," Mr Leigh said.
Nice job @ABSCensus can't keep a website online during expected busy time. I dont trust you with my personal details pic.twitter.com/C8gHt1ccDU
— Paul Fox (@paulie_fox) August 9, 2016
Mr Leigh said the opposition would pursue the government in Parliament and in Senate estimates over the bungle.
"The census is the biggest data collection exercise that we have and it determines allocation of resources across communities," he said.
"If we don't get an accurate snapshot on census night, we can't allocate resources properly," he said, citing closing the gap on indigenous disadvantage and education funding as two areas that could be affected.
Labor MPs vowed to take up the census failure with the government, which is yet to be officially sworn in.
I say this census thing is working splendidly .. What's the address of that Census crew. My carrier pigeon is ready. pic.twitter.com/ybAsmZp1j5
— Anthony Byrne (@AnthonyByrne_MP) August 9, 2016
#CensusFail #census2016 Just wait till #estimates #questiontime and other forms of Parliament to resume. @ABSStats What a fiasco!
— Shayne Neumann (@ShayneNeumannMP) August 9, 2016