Chris Ketter (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to speak in relation to the Senate Economics References Committee's report into the 2016 census. The events of the night of 9 August were very, very concerning. It was concerning that millions of Australians had their time wasted. The shutdown of the website raised fears over the security of the data that was provided. And, of course, the public was left confused when statements were given by the ABS and the government on 9 August which were not consistent. It is appropriate that the committee investigated what occurred and recommended actions that would prevent this issue from occurring again.

I will quote from one paragraph of the report that emphasises the committee's view that the decisions taken in the years and months leading up to 9 August put the 2016 census at risk:

A narrow focus on the events of August risks treating the symptoms and ignoring the disease. Questions regarding the validity of the ABS' actions should be focused on the years and months before the 2016 census when the decisions were made that would manifest themselves on 9 August 2016. The confirmation that the census would proceed, the delayed development of an eCensus solution, the use of a limited tender and the erosion of internal capacity to adequately oversee the development of the eCensus are all serious concerns that may contributed to the events of 9 August 2016.

The issue that the committee identified through the inquiry and through the estimates process included the following. There were four ministers with responsibility for the portfolio from September 2013. That is four ministers over the course of under three years. The Australian Statistician vacancy was left open for almost a year during 2014 when major contractual decisions were being made. Planning for the census was disrupted when the government was considering a move to the 10-yearly census. There must have been confusion within the Public Service in relation to that. A decision was taken in 2014 to use the limited tender process whereby IBM was the only company allowed to tender for the eCensus. IBM had already developed key IT infrastructure for the ABS and it was felt by them that it would be very difficult to consider working with another contractor. We noted that that was also the view of other potential bidders for the work for the census.

Also:

The ABS did not independently test the DDoS protections that IBM was contracted to put in place, as it considered that it had received reasonable assurances from IBM.

That was part of the ABS submission. The relatively small DDoS attacks should have been easily thwarted, and we heard from experts in the industry who explained that these types of attacks are commonplace and should have been identified as being a potential threat, and adequate measures should have been taken to thwart them.

The public consultation on the decision to retain name information for longer for the purpose of data linkage was for a period of three weeks, and the ABS received three submissions in response. The cost of the census, as a result of these failures, blew out by $30 million and Treasury, as far as we know at this point in time, is in commercial negotiations with IBM over the damages and perhaps recompense for Australian taxpayers for the failure of the e-census.

The committee has made a number of recommendations to strengthen the processes of census preparation to ensure that these events are not repeated again. I want to emphasise a few things when reflecting on the inquiry. The report notes that the committee heard much evidence to the effect that the ABS is underfunded to meet its objectives and that the current levels of funding place at risk the ongoing operations of the ABS. The government needs to properly fund the ABS so that it can carry out its functions and properly serve the Australian public. The government needs to provide clear portfolio stability for the ABS and to take an active interest in its functions. It would appear that failure is an orphan here, and we did not see any of the ministers stepping up to the plate to claim responsibility for what has happened. The government also needs to ensure that organisations like the ABS are properly resourced and skilled to manage cybersecurity threats and that good governance and procurement processes are put in place and followed.

There has been a deafening silence from the government over this census debacle. A grown-up, responsible government should have managed the 2016 census better, but it seems that the government cannot help but mismanage everything it touches. Whether it is the backpacker tax, the census or the budget, poor processes were followed and Australians are the worse for it.

I want to close my comments and refer to a recent media article by Mr Andrew Moore in The Daily Telegraph regarding the census. I want to raise the point that in that article there is yet another reported cabinet leak. This is obviously a divided government that spends its effort fighting itself rather than fighting for the interests of the Australian people. The article notes that the census:

… results were reported to Cabinet and suggested a very high completion as a percentage of all households and greater than previous Census results. What the number actually is we don’t yet know because it is in a confidential Cabinet document. The problem with the number, however, is that it apparently isn’t a whole number. It has a decimal digit. For example — 85.6 per cent …

Apparently one minister, who did not seem to understand this, said, 'How can you have a fraction of a person or a fraction of a household?' That is quite a revealing quote to be leaked to the media—a cabinet minister responsible for the most important decision Australia faces does not understand basic mathematics or statistics.

This is a government that apparently does not care about numbers, and maybe that is why critical organisations like the ABS are not given the proper attention and resourcing that they deserve. A government responsible for the management of the economy has a cabinet minister who does not understand basic maths. The Prime Minister, in my view, needs to take action. The Australian people deserve better. He was quoted as saying that 'heads will roll' over the census debacle. Maybe he could start with the responsible minister, and maybe he could also send that cabinet minister back to school to learn about maths and statistics. This census inquiry has shown that the ABS, IBM and the government have all let down the Australian people. The committee has made serious recommendations to address the key issues identified, and we call on the government to take responsibility, step up to the plate and fix the mess. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.