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The Census Files: When the bishops pushed back (Part 1)
By Si Gladman
On 11 April 2024, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) sent an email to a recipient in the federal Treasury Department with the subject line: “Religious Affiliation Talking Points for the PM”. “Please find the requested talking points,” wrote the Acting Program Manager of the Population Statistics Branch in the short email.
The email was among the hundreds of pages of documents obtained by the Rationalist Society of Australia under freedom of information (FOI) laws and revealing documentation of the ABS’ work, throughout 2024, on a proposed new religion question for the 2026 Census, and revealing correspondence between ABS executives, government ministers and departments, and religious community groups.
"At the onset of the winter months, the ABS was well down the path to taking its proposed new religion question to the 2024 Census Test in the spring ... But soon the ABS and the Census would be catapulted into the headlines. And, ultimately, everything would change."
Si Gladman
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