Federal Budget slashes Census funding, Australian Bureau of Statistics to lose 408 jobs

THE 2016 Census became a national joke but the Federal Budget is slashing funds for the next survey, with millions of dollars and hundreds of jobs to go.

DESPITE a disastrous 2016 Census that became a national punchline, the Federal Government has revealed plans to strip $217 million and 408 staff — that’s one in six workers — from the Australian Bureau of Statistics over the next year.

The Federal Budget documents also show it will slash its investment in the bureau over the next four years — in time for the next census — but claimed “red tape reductions” and “flexible working environments” would help offset its dwindling resources.

BUDGET 2017: WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU

The massive cutbacks will come even though a Senate inquiry into last year’s census recommended greater funding for the bureau and a financial commitment to a 2021 census in this Budget.

The ABS’ Census website failed on its launch day and remained down for almost two days.

At the time, Small Business Minister Michael McCormack said the Government had already acted on the inquiry’s findings.

“The ABS accepts responsibility for its role in the census outage and has acknowledged and apologised for its poor judgments,” Mr McCormack said.

Budget papers revealed the bureau’s resourcing would be slashed by $217 million over the next financial year, with further cuts planned until 2021.

By the time of the next census, the bureau’s expenses will be almost half what they had been at the time of the 2016 Census failure — down $247 million.

This Budget will also cut ABS staff numbers, removing 408 jobs from its workforce — equivalent to one in every six people.

The reductions come even though the Budget notes “the rebuilding of public confidence and trust in the ABS following the conduct of the 2016 Census” is among its “highest priorities,” and that it missed several of its targets.

Just 58 per cent of households completed the census online, according to the Budget — short of its 65 per cent target — and 80 per cent of businesses were on track to fill in ABS forms online rather than its target of 90 per cent.

The ABS also failed to report on whether it saved $200,000 in “red-tape reductions” as targeted; but flexible work arrangements, including open-plan offices and remote access technology, were forecast to save the bureau $5.5 million from next financial year.

The August 2016 Census was widely mocked when the website designed to record responses broke on census night and remained unavailable for almost 48 hours.

A Senate inquiry later determined the website had been targeted by relatively “small and predictable” denial-of-service attacks, its preparation had been inadequate, and contractor IBM reached an undisclosed settlement believed to be more than $30 million.