ABS poor planning of online Census 2016

I got this message when I tried to logon at 10.30PM, 10.45PM, 11PM, 11:15PM:

'Thank you for participating in the Census. The system is very busy at the moment. Please wait for 15 minutes before trying again. Your patience and cooperation are appreciated. [code 9]'

then I got sick of that and went to their Facebook Page which had a helpful statement on it (which one would have thought they would have put up on the login page so people didn't keep wasting their time trying every 15 minutes to logon).

'The ABS and Census website are unavailable. The service won’t be restored tonight. We will update you in the AM. We apologise for the inconvenience. There will be no fines for completing the Census after August 9. There’s still plenty of time to complete the Census. Thanks for your patience.'...

I was stupid to leave it until the last minute but hey...I had to get my fill of the Olympics and have a glass of wine....anyway this is what I wrote back:

'What ABS should have done is allow people to download the form first complete it electronically offline then go back in and submit with a login code. That way there would have been a lot less strain on the server....one would have thought.'

Well I guess I'll try again in the morning and see if the computer says 'Yes' this time!

Well Good morning Australia....our useless IT people at ABS still have not fixed the problem at 8.30 AM!

Did the person in charge of this fiasco stay up all night to fix this or were they flex off early last night?

Will the person in charge of the IT fiasco at ABS  face disciplinary proceedings if investigation shows negligence?

I agree with many Australians that the very least the ABS should have done is give this kind of information on the Census site itself so people didn't waste their time by keep trying all night. Very poor management. Who is responsible, I'd like to see their names, qualifications and see who is entrusted with all the nation's data.

If the cause was external, how secure is the system?

The Minister responsible needs to run a broom from top to bottom of ABS.

The Minister and the head of ABS ought come out and make a public statement about all the details and when people who have not completed the Census can do so and how.

I tried all day Wednesday 10 August to get back onto the Census site to login and got the same error message; even as late as 6.30PM! This is NOT acceptable from the Commonwealth Government. There was NO message on the website to give any indication of if or when the online service would be restored. Are we supposed to guess?

The news simply says the narrative spat out from ABS mandarins that it was sue to a cyber attack...well so where to now? How do we complete the Census?

In desperation I went to ABS site and phoned in....got a recorded message...that asked for my Login and then hung up. I presume a paper form will be posted out but am not sure. This is second rate amateurism you expect out of the Middle East or perhaps North Korea not from the Commonwealth of Australia. I think its time for the PM or Alistair MacGibbon or a Cyber Tsar to do a  cull of all senior public servants in ABS or the outside consultants responsible for IT at ABS and get people in there who know what they're doing and who know how to communicate and serve the public. At the moment they are short changing the Australian people. Heads should roll over this.

So is the Census cancelled for 2016? What do people do who have not completed the online form because the site went down and as at 10 PM on Wednesday 10 August 2016 is still down...without ANY information as to what to do. Not even the ABS Facebook has any answers. Hello?  Is there anyone in charge?