Stand up and be counted!

Months of advertising - first for the collectors and supervisors, and then promoting the census - are over. I've spent a scintillating 20 minutes filling it in, and took advantage of being able to do it online (kudos to the webmaster - no crashes!)

My favourite comment on talkback radio on the way home tonight was that "we should tell the government the same amount of truth that they tell us". I was actually surprised at the number of people who said that they were not prepared to complete the census because they asked for your name, address and employer details. Guess what people - if you have a mortgage, a bank account or a credit card, they already have all of this information about you. Done your tax? They've got your information that way too!

I love to read history, and my favourite parts of history are when I can get a real understanding of people, and what their lives were really like. It always makes things much more alive for me. I always loved reading the questions sent in to Ancestor magazine (published by The Genealogical Society of Victoria) asking about how to find people, and seeing the answers about past censuses (censii? who knows?) I've given permission for my personal details to be accessed in 99 years, and I hope that someone like me can see that information and be fascinated by how I live now.

I have to admit to being a little naughty though. I hope that whoever gets to process the forms gets a giggle from my response. No, I didn't claim to be a Jedi Knight. I've always been too scared to list my occupation as Trafficker on Immigration entrance and exit cards, so I've done it on my census form. I work for one of those newfangled new media companies, and have overall responsibility for the booking of banner advertising on our website (yep, those annoying things). That does, technically, make me a trafficker. So now, I've justified my mum describing my job to everyone she knows as a trafficker in one of Melbourne's less salubrious suburbs. I've told her. She was very proud.