Census Australia website was always going to fail, radio caller claims

THE Census website is back up and running and the ABS has promised the public their personal data is “safe and secure”. But will Aussies believe it?

AUSTRALIANS have been assured their personal data is “safe and secure” as thousands head back online to try and get the Census completed.

The site is now available for Australians to fill their Census forms out, after almost two days of being out of action after a spectacular crash.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics tweeted confirmation of the news on Thursday afternoon, as well as thanking people for their patience, and apologising for the inconvenience.

At a media conference tonight, ABS chief statistician David Kalisch moved to assure Australians it was safe to fill out. “Your census data is safe and secure.”

The protection of data was of paramount importance to the ABS, he said.

Mr Kalisch said ABS took a cautious approach before reopening the Census website — and only did so after being assured by intelligence agencies it was safe to do so.

So far about a third of Australians had completed the Census.

“We would request Australians continue to show their support and complete the census fully and accurately,” he said.

The return of the website comes as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said earlier today he was deeply unhappy with the debacle.

“It shouldn’t have happened, I’m not happy about it, none of us are,” Mr Turnbull said.

Many Australians took to social media to celebrate the return of the Census.

Starting to complete the #census2016 form online.

— Terry Rawnsley (@TRaw_SGS) August 11, 2016

#census2016 site is back up and running. Go back to your computers in a calm and orderly fashion. pic.twitter.com/7EM6JDEtTF

— Jono P (@Jono5785) August 11, 2016

But others have tweeted they are still getting that now all too familiar error message.

the 👏 census 👏 is 👏 still 👏 down 👏

— Stuart Fazakerley (@stuartfaz) August 11, 2016

‘THEY KNEW IT WAS GOING TO FAIL’

Testing of the new Census site showed it was consistently failing days before the site went live, an insider has revealed.

A caller to Sydney radio station 2UE this morning, identified only as Ross, said a colleague from the Australian Bureau of Statistics saw first-hand how the testing systems had repeatedly failed.

He also said those working on the project knew it was bound to end in disaster.

“I have a colleague who works in geo-social analysis at the ABS and sits near the testers who work with IBM,” Ross said.

“He saw some of the load testing that was being done prior to Census website going up and it was failing.

“He knew that it was going to fail, a lot of them knew.”

Small Business Minister Michael McCormack MP was one of the 2.3 million people who have completed their Census online. Picture: Twitter

Ross said his colleague was now worried about his job and people were too scared to speak out.

He also told the station that his faith in the entire system was now broken.

“They knew, they knew it was going to happen. It’s shocking,” Ross said.

“I’ve filled in the Census for years and my complete trust has gone out the window. It’s wrong, it’s embarrassing.

“This story has gone global.”

Ross added we would all be laughing if this was another country and that someone had to take the blame.

As the site remained down for a second day, many Australians were left asking if the site would crash again and if their details were indeed safe.

The ABS has been contacted regarding the claims and when the site was expected to be operating.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said heads will roll over the debacle. Picture: Rick Rycroft

The testing failure claim came despite repeated assurances from Census Australia who said that the first digital Census would not be a repeat the Click Frenzy crash of 2012.

Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Census boss Chris Libreri told news.com.au earlier this week that the digital snapshot of 2016 would not fail.

“We have load tested it at 150 per cent of the number of people we think are going to be on it on Tuesday for eight hours straight and it didn’t look like flinching,” he said.

“We wouldn’t do it unless we were able to safely do it, we have evolved it and we are confident.”

As early as Tuesday, the ABS maintained Census night would not be a disaster.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull today admitted the ABS had failed and warned heads would roll over the debacle.

Mr Turnbull said he expected the site to be back online today and urged Australians to complete the compulsory survey.

“This has been a failure of the ABS,” he said.

“The ABS has inconvenienced millions of Australians. It shouldn’t have happened. I am not happy about it. None of us are.”