ABS brings same-sex marriage vote home $20m under budget

The cost of the postal survey is likely to be at least $20 million under budget, with the vote a success, says ABS.

The Australian Statistician, David Kalisch releasing the results of the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey at a media conference at ABS House in Canberra. Picture: Kym Smith.

The cost of the postal survey is likely to land at least $20 million under budget, with the Australian Bureau of Statistics claiming the vote as a major success.

Allocated a funding envelope of $122m, the ABS was asked to provide the national result, along with the results for states and territories in addition to breakdowns by electorate and age group.

The ABS yesterday said it was undertaking a “full evaluation” of the survey, including the final costs, but chief statistician David Kalisch was confident it had come in at least $20m under budget.

“The ABS has also been prudent with taxpayer funds. While the costs are still being tallied, I am confident that the final cost of the survey will be under $100m,” he said. The budget was spent on a range of measures to bolster participation and uphold the integrity of the result.

These included a communications campaign; the provision of alternative means of voting, including paperless options; extra support to promote participation by remote indigenous communities as well as Australians living or travelling overseas and those who have disabilities and others unable to speak English.

The ABS also engaged global consulting firm Protiviti to provide quality assurance oversight over the postal survey. A designated “fraud examiner” was also ­appointed to implement a plan to prevent, detect and respond to potential fraud in the survey which led to legislation of key safeguards. Other controls included the use of secure access codes to prevent the counterfeiting of survey responses.