The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has partnered with Deakin University to improve the national authority’s online surveying.
In 2016 the bureau’s Australian Census went digital for the first time.
But non-responses and hacking attacks led Federal Labor leader Bill Shorten to label the nation survey the “worst-run Census in the history of Australia”.
Deakin Vice-Chancellor Professor Jane den Hollander said Deakin research would the help the ABS understand barriers to the public responding to surveys online.
Projects under the agreement would improve the quality of electronic data and response rates from households and businesses, while cutting red tape, Prof den Hollander saidABS could draw on Deakin’s “multi-disciplinary expertise and experience, combined with the latest technological innovations,“ she said.
Prof den Hollander and the ABS Australian Statistician David Kalisch signed the agreement at Deakin’s Waterfront Campus Wednesday.
She said the agreement would strengthen Deakin’s relationship with the bureau, which established its National Data Acquisition Centre (NDAC) at the waterfront campus in 2016.
“Deakin is committed to supporting the communities we serve.
“We are pleased that government agencies such as the ABS have chosen to invest in Geelong and the local economy through jobs and research programs that will spring from our partnership.”
The NDAC brought 300 new jobs to Geelong. The centre collects data from 26,000 households a month and 100,000 businesses a year.
