Greens' census rebellion over privacy concerns is pretty funny

This year's census is proving to be a rolled gold disaster in many ways. The fact that the website crashed reflected very poorly on the Government -- especially if this was due solely to the unforeseen number of wannabe form fillers and not because of some DOS attack, as claimed. Malcolm Turnbull in particular is looking like a real goose after having waxed lyrical about agility, innovation and nimbleness for so long.

Compounding the calamity has been the public outcry over privacy. Pouncing on this issue, ornery senators have staged a mini-rebellion by threatening to refuse to include their names on census forms.

You can understand Nick Xenophon doing this. After all, he never met a meeja stunt he didn't like. And ready-chick Jacqui Lambie is happy to arc up about pretty much anything if it'll make the LNP look bad ... But the fact that several Greens senators are in this group is pretty bizarre given their ideology. I can only assume that they found the opportunity for a bit of propaganda (not to mention party publicity) too tempting to resist.

Their whole party is about controlling the masses, after all. As we all know they are creepy commies in hipster clothing -- "watermelons" for short. (If you think I'm being OTT then look at the, er, herstory of Lee Rhiannon, one of the senators currently so deeply concerned about individuals' right to privacy.)

As well as trying to destroy productive industry, these toxic avengers spend much of their time telling people how to think, act and even feel. They are very pro-censorship and want cartoonists to be be severely punished for pointing out tragic social ills. Now in a disturbing political embrace with Islamism, they demand that mockery of that religion be made off-limits. They also want to invade classrooms to shape kids developing sexuality. Hell, they'll even tell you what to do in the bloody shower!

We can laugh at these silly people now because of their petty, petulant finger-wagging on so many issues. And their electoral support seems to be waning, which is good to know. But can you imagine what such control freaks would do if they ever managed to gain real, pervasive, enduring power over Australian citizens?

The manifold privacy invasions they would surely be happy to commit to create then maintain their imagined socialist utopia would make any potential worries about this particular census seem like very small beer indeed.