The census by definition is for people WHO LIVE in a country where it’s conducted, but apparently that’s not the case in Australia where they even make it mandatory for non-citizens (tourists) when they are only visitors (who DO NOT live in Australia in the first place), the logic doesn’t make any sense. Like if, a tourist should not be forced to do it since they hold a foreign passport and have no residential address in Australia.

  • Nath@aussie.zoneMEnglish
    3·
    1 day ago

    It was an example. A simple data point anyone could understand. But as I haven’t convinced you yet, let’s take it further…

    What of the three-year-old population in Kensington? They aren’t at the school yet but will want to be next year. Or the couples in their late 20’s who are married? Several of those will want to send kids in ~5 years. How will you learn how many of those are in the area?

    town planners would conduct a thorough review and actually ask stakeholders, like local residents, parents, other schools, etcetera.

    Sure would be useful for those town planners to have some useful statistical demographics from the last five years to refer to for this review, wouldn’t it? What if they had multiple snapshots of Kensington every five years over the last 20 years or so? That data would be super useful for conducting a review. They should do a survey of the people in Kensington to get that data!

    • im_fine_sandy@nord.pubEnglish
      13·
      1 day ago

      Oh man.

      What if the school had some data like… Oh I don’t know… The number of enrolments of 4 year olds for the last n years. That would certainly be an interesting data point.

      It just doesn’t make any sense to me at all to suggest that people are making these decisions with census data.

      State education departments don’t have surplus funds. There are no schools sitting empty because someone is waiting for the census to tell them there are no students in the area. Likewise there are no schools being built because the census says there are some 3 year olds I’m the area.

      Education departments allocate their scarce resources based on enrolments. That’s it.

      Seriously, this is truly the dumbest example.

      • Nath@aussie.zoneMEnglish
        2·
        1 day ago

        So an entire federal government department spends millions and millions of dollars to collect all this information for it to not be used?

        You are incorrect. ABS data informs education departments routinely. Again, please do at least a minimal amount of searching before you plop onto the Internet and just confidently say random shit with authority.

        https://www.abs.gov.au/methodologies/schools-methodology/2024

        https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/srp-core-student-learning-allocation/guidance/rural-school-size-adjustment-factor

        Location measures will be updated with the release of new ABS data every 5 years. The last ABS data survey was completed in August 2021 and implemented in 2025.

        • im_fine_sandy@nord.pubEnglish
          1·
          22 hours ago

          Self-own here guy. Honestly, if this is the best example of use of ABS data you can find, then the census is indeed a huge waste of money.

          You’re referencing an obscure line item in school funding:

          Rural School Size Adjustment Factor (Reference 4)

          This funding line supports small rural schools that require additional resources to reduce rural and urban school disparities.

          Not surprisingly, the amount of funding is calculated by enrolments, as I’ve been saying:

          Allocation = Primary enrolments × Primary per student rate + Secondary enrolments × Secondary per student rate

          The only use of ABS data is to determine whether a population centre is greater than 20,000 people:

          Outside provincial locations with more than 20,000 population, as defined by the ABS Urban Centres and Localities (UCL). Using ABS 2021, campuses in Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Shepparton-Mooroopna, Warrnambool, Albury-Wodonga, Mildura, Traralgon, Bacchus Marsh, Ocean Grove-Barwon Heads and Torquay-Jan Juc are ineligible.

          This really is the antithesis of “census driven funding” that you’re trying to illustrate. They’re not counting 3 year olds, or newly weds, or nubile virgins.

          The classification of population centre sizes could easily be determined without the census.