Bernardi hits out at ABS over census

Liberal backbencher Cory Bernardi has criticised the Australian Bureau of Statistics and questioned how it failed to anticipate a census crash.

The attack on the national survey conjured up images of foreign powers seeking to gather public data to undermine Australian society, he says in a weekly newsletter.

"I wasn't surprised the system crashed. It just makes me wonder how our government agencies thought we would be any different," Senator Bernardi said.