Andrew Leigh

Today the Senate Economics References Committee tabled its report into Malcolm Turnbull’s stuff-up of the 2016 Census.

The report details the damning evidence heard by the Committee about how the ABS was underfunded to meet its objectives for the Census and that current levels of funding for other ABS functions are inadequate.

An effective government could have delivered the 2016 Census, but the chaos and dysfunction at the heart of the Turnbull Government means it mismanages everything it touches.

The committee has made a number of recommendations to ensure that the census failure of 2016 is not repeated in 2021.

The Turnbull Government needs to respond to the recommendations in this report as well as a number of questions it raises, including;

- Where has the extra $30 million of taxpayer’s money spent on rescuing the Census come from?

- Why did the government wait for 12 months to fill the position of Chief Statistician while the Census was being developed?

The Government must also ensure that the ABS is properly resourced to manage cyber security threats and provide accurate, reliable data for the Australian people.

Malcom Turnbull said that ‘heads will roll’ over the census, but no-one has been has been held to account and none of the four ministers in three years who had oversight of the 2016 Census have taken responsibility for this stuff-up.

The report is available here.

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