Comment on [deleted]

• CameronDev@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  So the government has a rough idea of how many non citizens are in Australia, and roughly where. So any services that non-citizens may need (tourism centres, consulates, etc) get put in the right place.

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• slazer2au@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Because knowing where temporary residents and permanent residents are also helps with government planning not just people who are citizens.

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• Pennywise@quokk.au ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  No idea. I’m from the US. I use quokk.au because it’s super fast and doesn’t bother me with repeatedly verifying that I’m not a bot… unlike practically every other instance I’ve tried.

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• palordrolap@fedia.io ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  To hazard a guess (don't know for sure, not even for my own country), it's for future historians to be able to build up a picture of who was where and when.

  What might seem obvious and common knowledge now might not be in 100 years.

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  • CameronDev@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Much shorter term, the point of the census is to know where people are and what they need, so government spending can be done effectively. No point building hospitals/centrelink/etc in areas that don’t need them.

    Australian census records are (opt-in) deanonymised after 100 years, so there is some historical value.

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