I was surprised to hear Mount Isa Mayor Joyce McCulloch tell ABC North West Queensland the 2016 census data could not be trusted after it recorded a drop in Mount Isa’s population by around 3000 since 2011.
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I was surprised for two reasons.
Firstly, it did not come up when I asked for her reaction on the census in an interview for the North West Star earlier in the week.
When I asked about the population drop her response was that Mount Isa needed to position itself as a service hub for north west Queensland and parts of the Northern Territory to maintain current population and “perhaps in the confident times possibly increase it”.
There was no mention of any concerns about the accuracy of the census.
Secondly, I am surprised because the reasons why the census data supposedly cannot be trusted are not new.
Prior to the census in August 2016, data advocates were calling for a boycott of the census due to privacy concerns over a longer retention period of name and address data.
Then on the night of the census there were IT problems that knocked the online census off the air for a week with computer experts saying the data could not be trusted.
Both concerns were valid – though in my view neither fundamentally compromise the integrity of the census.
I don’t recall the Mayor at the time voicing any concerns about either the privacy breech or the IT issues.
It’s hard to avoid the impression the Mayor is now complaining about the census because she doesn’t like the result for Mount Isa.
Yet the result is hardly a surprise to anyone.
Mount Isa has been hit hard in the resources downturn and Mount Isa Mines have culled many jobs in the five years from 2011 to 2016 leading to a knock-on effect in other parts of our economy.
It’s no use blaming the census for that.
Cr McCulloch was right when she told the North West Star Mount Isa needed to focus on being that service hub.
These are sentiments I would endorse and is in Mount Isa’s strategic long term interest. Let’s work on arresting the flow for the 2021 census. – Derek Barry
Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
