This is a situation that has been commented upon by various motorcycle magazine editors before, but ...it's happened again!
Question 45 in the census form asks how the respondent travelled to work on 9 August, and includes the choice of "motorbike or motor scooter".
Question 54 asks for the number of registered motor vehicles garaged at the respondent's on the night of 9 Aug. The instructions say to include vans and company vehicles kept at home, but to exclude motorbikes and motor scooters.
Why this anomaly? I asked the local Census area manager, who happens to ride a Kwaka Ninja and is an old mate of mine, why the government specifically has asked for motorcycles not to be included in this count and he is as much in the dark as I am. You would think that as the Census is supposed to be a "snapshot" of Australia on that one day in time, that the ownership of motorcycles, whether for commuting purposes, pleasure, economics, whatever, would be something for future city planners, demographers, government road and transport departments, etc to consider.
It seems odd to me that the Statistics Bureau acknowledges that some commuters ride to work, but then tries to refuse to acknowledge motorcycle ownership in a later question. Or do they think our bikes magically appeared on the morning of 9 Aug for the ride to work and then just as mysteriously disappeared into thin air when we arrived home?
It sucks that we as motorcycle owners and therefore supporters of the large sales maintenance and accessories industries relating to motorcycles, to say nothing of our rego and insurance commitments, can be so disaffected by this bureaucratic direction. Why are they so intent, again, on refusing to gather details of motorcycle ownership?