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THE COST OF RETENTION
Electronic collection or electronic capture of forms in future censuses may provide a better alternative Although ABS has no plans to electronically collect census information from householders (eg through the Internet) or to electronically capture the census forms in future censuses, it is likely both will be considered at some stage. Were this feasible and cost effective for other census purposes then the costs of retaining identifiable information would fall. Technology has built-in obsolescence As the rapid changes in technology this century demonstrate, technology can get out of date quickly. There is no guarantee that today's technology will be available to access the census records when they are out of the closed period. Whatever storage medium is chosen it will need to be maintained for many more than 100 years. ADDITIONAL COSTS TO THE CONDUCT OF THE CENSUS Additional costs of informing the public The retention of census forms will involve significant additional costs to the ABS in informing the public of the uses that will be made of their census record, as required by the Information Privacy Principles of the Privacy Act, 1983. This change in practice will have to be upfront and explicit for people to be appropriately informed and is likely to generate significant interest at the time of the next census. To ensure a successful census explaining the change cannot be at the expense of other elements of the census communications strategy (eg explaining the purpose of the census), so substantial extra costs would be incurred. Additional cost of collecting the data Given the significance of a decision to change the longstanding policy on census form destruction, it would be expected that collection staff would have a more onerous job while delivering and collecting census forms. This could occur by collectors having to explain the reasons for the change in policy and what it means, and having to deal with public resistance to providing a completed census form. This would require:
OTHER ADDITIONAL COSTS Long term administration and management of stored records involves considerable cost Long term storage in a controlled environment would be required to prevent deterioration of the records, whatever storage medium is used. Of crucial importance are the safety and confidentiality of stored records from mis-use, fire and burglary. Appropriate measures would need to be implemented and assured to the Australian public that the records are safe from incorrect usage or harm over the entire retention period. Arrangements would also have to be put in place to provide a right of access by respondents to inspect records held of them and to amend these records where they are considered by them to be wrong, as required by the Privacy Act, 1983. Such access arrangements are likely to be very expensive as significant clerical effort would be required to allow for the retrieval, inspection, amendment and archival of the records, even if only a small proportion of the population avails itself of the opportunity. Appropriate procedures would need to be devised for researchers to access the records, after 75/100 years, and these procedures implemented and managed on an ongoing basis. User pays principle should apply to researchers Government policy is towards the application of the user-pays principle. Given the significant additional costs that would be incurred should census forms be retained, the cost per individual access is likely to be very high if those costs are to be recouped. Indeed, the cost is very likely to be outside the reach of most researchers. Failure to apply user-pays principles would, in effect, mean that genealogists given access to the forms would be benefiting from a substantial government subsidy to support what is essentially private research.
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