Grubs steal special- needs man’s tablet, wallet
THE same- sex marriage plebiscite will be an even bigger exercise than the Census, opponents of the postal plebiscite have claimed in court.
It follows the Australian Bureau of Statistics deputy chief, who will run the plebiscite, reassuring the public the exercise would not turn into another “Census fail”.
Australian Marriage Equality, challenging the validity of the postal vote in the High Court, claimed in a submission that it was “unprecedented in Australian history”.
“The scale of the plebiscite exceeds the Census in terms of reach given that the ABS only provides one survey per household, whereas here every person on the Commonwealth electoral role may participate in the plebiscite,” the submission stated.
There are about 16 million eligible voters in Australia, compared to about eight million households contacted for the Census.
The Australian Electoral Commission is assisting the ABS in conducting the survey. The ABS faced criticism over its running of the 2016 Census, after the website crashed.
ABS deputy statistician Jonathan Palmer last week said the ABS was fully capable of undertaking the plebiscite. WORK on a new Catholic primary school at Shaw is two weeks’ ahead of schedule.
Townsville Catholic Education director of leadership and school development Ross Horner said construction on St Benedict’s Catholic School is ahead of schedule because there hadn’t been any rain.
“Our principal has been interviewing prospective students and the two Prep classes are full up,” he said.
“Our target was about 130 students for the start of 2018 and we believe we are on track.”
Mr Horner said the school was also aiming to receive a five- star green rating for Australian excellence in sustainability.