Those are two different questions. In Germany, I have to tell the state where I live and every time I move, I have to tell them again. I can't open a bank acco

Those are two different questions. In Germany, I have to tell the state where I live and every time I move, I have to tell them again. I can't open a bank account, get health insurance, rent a proper place, I can't do anything, till the local council can be bothered staffing the registration office enough to see me. I certainly live at a certain place, but it's as if I'm staying at that address on holiday. In Australia, I don't have to register with the state. If I move house, I have enough things on my mind. If a person is born, died, gets married or (sometimes) changes their name in Australia, someone has to report that fact to the government. But a person is a person, or dead, or married, or has a different name while they're waiting for the bureaucracy to do its thing. In both cases, children have to go to school. Even in the absence of any registration or reporting, there's still an obligation. So what does the registration actually achieve? The government has the power and ability to find out where a person lives. Why compel me to do something you can make obnoxiously difficult? - and which serves no apparent purpose?