A person who says they are a staff member at the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has accused the agency of bowing to political pressure in carrying out the same-sex marriage postal survey, saying the entire exercise was "disrespectful" to the agency's history.
The accusations were made in a submission to the current senate inquiry into the postal survey, chaired by Labor senator Jenny McAllister. It was published on the Australian parliament house website on Friday afternoon.
The person, who asked that their name be withheld, wrote that they had worked at the ABS for over five years and were making the submission in a personal capacity.
They said their key issues with the survey was that it was not a statistical exercise, lacks statistical rigour, and is inconsistent with the role of the ABS.
"The conduct of this survey is, in short, disrespectful to the proud 112 year history of the Bureau," they wrote.
"When I joined the ABS, much was made of the fact that we were at a time rated as the second best statistical agency in the world, behind Statistics Canada. It is worth noting that in the last 10 years, two Chief Statisticians of Statistics Canada have resigned due to government interference with their agency. I cannot help but wonder if it is this commitment to independence that has them apart from the ABS."
"I have grave concerns for how the ABS will rebuild the trust of the Australian community once the dust has settled on this exercise, especially given the issues with the 2016 Census."
The submission criticises at length the instructions handed to the ABS from the government, arguing that they were so prescriptive as to have hampered the ABS in designing an optimal survey.
"I have no doubt that if the ABS were given a broad direction to collect information on Australian voters’ views on same sex marriage that it would not have chosen to conduct the survey in the manner that it is doing so," they wrote.
They cited in particular the timing and scope of the survey, which were dictated in the direction from treasurer Scott Morrison, as well as the question which is identical to that contained in the government's plebiscite legislation.
The ABS rejected this accusation, saying Australian Statistician David Kalisch had the power to decide how to collect statistics and had made a "considered judgment" in the case of the postal survey.
"The Census is another collection where the government determines the topics and also specifies the date of the Census through producing regulations under the legislation," a spokesperson told BuzzFeed News.
The spokesperson also rejected the allegation that the ABS had succumbed to political pressure in undertaking the survey.
The submission contained a minor error in talking about the survey, suggesting that Yes/No counts had not been provided for electorates when in fact they had been.
The senior clerk of parliamentary committees, David Sullivan, told BuzzFeed News that submissions to an inquiry must initially come with a name and contact details attached, so the secretary can get in touch with them if there are questions over the veracity of the submission.
Asked how submissions are vetted, Sullivan said committee secretaries may call a person to check details if there are doubts about the authenticity of the name or the submission.
"It’s a tricky one, because there is no sort of hard and fast rules in terms of people’s identity," he said. "We sort of accept that people submit in good faith, and committees can only look at the evidence before them."
The submission also puts an argument that was roundly rejected by the High Court in September: that the survey should not be considered a collection of statistical information.
"The characteristics of the AMLPS more closely resemble that of a vote, plebiscite or petition than that of a statistical survey," they wrote.
The High Court ruled that it doesn't matter if a survey can also be described as a vote or a plebiscite as long as statistical information is collected. It also ruled that people's opinions about marriage do count as statistical information.