Tech Glitch With Online Census Form

  • 670,000 forget to his submit
  • 100 submissions a second
  • Some sessions time out after button hit

Almost three quarters of a million Australians forgot to hit the ‘submit’ button when they filled out the online form on Tuesday night. However, there have been reports from some citizens that they tried to hit the submit button but the window timed out before it was sent.

With more than 2 million households using the new system, it was seen as a success by the government except for that one small glitch.

“We have got over 670,000 households that have logged on but haven't hit that submit button. I encourage people to log back on and hit that submit button,” Paul Lowe, head of the Population Census Program told reporters in Canberra. “I am expecting we will see over 8 per cent of households in the next few days logging back on. Our collectors will be starting to go back out there and pick up the paper forms but they'll be out in the field until the end of August.”

At its peak, Lowe said there were up to 100 submissions happening every hour. And while there are those who find the once-a-decade survey intrusive, the government says it helps them distribute more than $45 billion worth of tax dollars to institutions and areas that need it the most.