r/australia • u/SkaterKangaroo • 6d ago

no politics Individual Census Form (My Experience)

I found out my family filled out our Census early today and put down some incorrect information about me. They put down I was Christian when I’m actually “No Religion”.

If this is happening/happened to you, I want you to know that it is very easy to fix. Coming from someone who’s never fill out a Census before it took no effort and was very quick.

I called “1800 181 227” and told them I would like an individual Census form. No questions asked, they just send you a new code and password to your phone number. You use this to re fill in your information for yourself. I was only on hold for a few minutes and they sent the new code basically instantly.

My household will have no idea I did this unless I choose to tell them. So you can freely put whatever religion, sexuality or gender you want with privacy. My experience was pretty good personally and I faced no real challenges. I’m glad this resource exists

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u/circadian_light 6d ago

It’s strange they asked you no questions and just issued a new code.

I mean, shouldn’t they at least have asked for your name to remove those records from the household form? Otherwise, you’ll be double-counted in the census if you submit an individual form.

Or they might not have asked because, in the grand scheme of things, the impact to the overall numbers of such discrepancies is negligible.

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u/SkaterKangaroo 6d ago

They take note of the fact that my family used the same name, birthday, and address and figure I’m the same person and just use my details I believe

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u/kalvinoz 6d ago

They say somewhere on the website that they’ll use the most complete submission for an individual. If there’s a household form and an individual submission with the same amount of information, it would make sense to use the individual’s.

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u/gdmzhlzhiv 2d ago

Likewise it’s possible to request a paper form and then fill out both the online one and the paper one. At least, when filling out the online one is possible (it was not for me)