Neil Breen:
Michael Sukkar is the Assistant Treasurer and he joins me on the line. Good morning to you, Assistant Treasurer.
Minister Sukkar:
Good morning, Neil. Great to be with you.
Neil Breen:
How many people have already completed their Census? I’ll start with at least five, that’s me and my family.
Minister Sukkar:
Oh good on you, Neil, well you’ve done your duty. We’ve had about 3.3 million surveys already returned which covers about 8.5 million Australians. So about a third of the country have already completed their survey and we’re now hoping for the remaining two thirds of Australians to complete it over the course of today and tonight but it’s touch wood, gone very smoothly thus far with the first 3.3 million. We’re just encouraging all Australians today to make that time, make that fifteen or twenty minutes over the course of today and this evening.
Neil Breen:
That’s all it took.
Minister Sukkar:
Yeah on average, that’s all it takes. Make that time, get it done and you’ll be contributing some really important statistics that will inform a whole range of decisions, not just for government but for a lot of different organisations around the country.
Neil Breen:
Assistant Treasurer, Michael Sukkar, it’ll be so different this Census, won’t it because of the lack of people movement? I think you’ll find so many people at home in a family unit in this Census.
Minister Sukkar:
It will be really interesting to really unpack the data over coming months and to try and find what those trends are that have been caused by lockdown. When we did the Census testing – we ordinarily do testing about 12 months before the Census – we did that last year during a lockdown as well. We’ve got experience with doing these during lockdowns but it will be fascinating to see the sort of information and differences that we see in 2021 potentially as a result of people being at home and being in lockdown which is obviously a fairly new phenomenon for most of us in our lives.
Neil Breen:
You had to take some precautions about hacking and all that sort of stuff but anything the government does now you need to take those precautions?
Minister Sukkar:
Well that’s right, Neil. We obviously saw in 2016, a few issues with a DDOS attack on the night of the Census and we’ve worked very hard to try and ensure that we’ve got as much security as we can to ensure that when people get on tonight, it’s a fair seamless process. Of course the protection of Australians data is paramount to us as well, protection their information and everything is encrypted end‑to‑end. So we’ve really thrown everything at it but of course, we’ll still be watching it very closely, Neil, and you don’t call mission accomplished until these things are over so we’ll be working pretty hard today to make sure it all works seamlessly. Australians can just help us by getting online and getting it done.
Neil Breen:
Now if I go on there and say that my names Obi‑Wan Kenobi and I’m a Jedi Knight, what sort of fine would I get?
Minister Sukkar:
Well, Neil, in the last Census we only fined a handful of people for not completing their Census. I don’t think that we’ll hand out fines for people…
Neil Breen:
Being idiots?
Minister Sukkar:
Being idiots, but we really do need people to take it as seriously as they possibly can. Give us the information, it really informs government spending in your local area so you’re helping yourself, you’re helping your community and of course you’re helping the country. But yeah there’s some fascinating stuff that ends up in those Census surveys, Neil, it’s pretty funny. But by and large Australians take it seriously and that’s why the information that we get out of it is so crucial.
Neil Breen:
Yeah I think that by and large they do, for sure. Assistant Treasurer, Michael Sukkar, thanks for joining us on 4BC breakfast.
Minister Sukkar:
Thanks for having me on, Neil.