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 <\/span>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.<\/p>\n While it was not clear whether the \u2018PM\u2019 in the subject line was referring to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, the request for talking points by the Treasury\u2019s Department, regarding one topic from a Census to be held in more than two years\u2019 time, suggests strong interest in the matter at the highest levels of the federal government.<\/span><\/p>\n The government\u2019s need for information about the ABS’ work on the religion question became evident within days of the email to the Treasury Department, as a powerful special interest group, the Catholic Church, launched a public campaign calling for the government to intervene.<\/span><\/p>\n The FOI documents show that, in the early months of 2024, the ABS was continuing with cognitive testing for the suite of topics and questions that it was preparing to take to the critical large-scale test in September that year (also referred to here as the “Census Test’). As part of that test, the ABS planned to send a Census form with all the proposed questions to thousands of households, reaching up to about 50,000 respondents. The test was viewed as critical to providing the ABS with the information it needed about the performance of new <\/span>topics<\/span><\/i> that it proposed to ask at the 2026 Census, and of a number of <\/span>newly formulated questions<\/span><\/i>\u00a0for existing topics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In a public statement in December 2023<\/span><\/a>, the ABS, following an extensive public consultation process, announced it had shortlisted for further testing and development five new topics, plus modifications to the questions used for 12 existing topics. Among these was a newly reformulated question, removing the biased wording and removing the picklist, for the topic of religious affiliation.<\/span><\/p>\n As part of its process, the ABS expected to make a recommendation to the federal government by mid 2024 on the topics to be used for the 2026 Census. According to the timelines, the government was then expected to confirm the topics by the end of July\/early August, giving the ABS enough time to prepare for the critical Census Test.<\/span><\/p>\n It is critical to note the roles of government and the ABS in determining the content of the Census. <\/span>The ABS\u2019 website says<\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n The topics that can be collected in the Census are specified in the Census and Statistics Regulation 2016 (the Regulation). The Australian Government makes the decision on what topics are included in the Regulation. The ABS has the authority to determine the wording of the questions for the topics in the Census.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n In other words, while the government has a say over whether the <\/span>topic<\/span><\/i> of religious affiliation is to be included in the Census, the ABS is supposed to have the final say on how it asks the <\/span>question<\/span><\/i> for that topic. And, in the first half of 2024, the ABS was going full-steam ahead with its plan to change the religion question.<\/span><\/p>\n In the talking points attached to the email to the Treasury Department in April 2024, the ABS said that it would be recommending the religious affiliation topic remain in the Census but that it would be \u201ctesting a modernisation of the Religious affiliation question for the 2026 Census to collect accurate data that is inclusive of all Australians\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n Following two large-scale public consultations and initial rounds of cognitive testing, the ABS had decided to change the wording of the question to remove the inherent bias that presumed all respondents have a religion. Instead of again using, \u2018What is the person\u2019s religion?\u2019, accompanied by a picklist of the most common religions and a \u2018No religion\u2019 box at the top of that list, the ABS was proposing to ask, \u2018Does the person have a religion?\u2019. Under the proposed change, respondents would then be presented with \u2018Yes\u2019 and \u2018No\u2019 boxes, and a free-text box for those who affirmed a religious affiliation to write their denomination.<\/span><\/p>\n During the two-year consultation process, the Australian public had raised the problem of the bias in the existing religion question and how it produced flawed data and inflated results in favour of religion. It was the topic that received the most public submissions, with the <\/span>need for change overwhelmingly supported<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n In July 2023, following phase 1 of the consultation, the ABS publicly acknowledged on its website the public\u2019s concern that the question <\/span>\u201cassumes you have a religion\u201d<\/span><\/a>. Later, following phase 2 of the consultation process, the ABS announced the proposed changes to the question design \u2013 including the changed wording of the question \u2013 in order to <\/span>\u201csupport more accurate data collection\u201d<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n In the talking points sent to the Treasury Department in April 2024, the ABS reported that initial testing of the reformulated question had \u201cnot presented concerns with proceeding with the question change\u201d. The newly worded question was, therefore, well and truly on the way for inclusion in the 2024 Census Test later in the year. In the document, the ABS also reminded the government that it was the ABS\u2019 job to decide how the question would be asked in the 2026 Census.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Just weeks earlier, in March, the ABS shared email correspondence with some of the country\u2019s most powerful religious organisations, notifying them of the proposed changes to the design of the religion question. In an email to the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, the ABS explained that the new religion question would \u201cproceed to the large-scale test\u201d in September 2024 and that decisions on the final questions to be used for the 2026 Census would then follow.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In late April, it became clear that the Catholic bishops were not happy with the changes being proposed to the religion question. <\/span>In an opinion piece in <\/span>The Australian<\/span><\/i><\/a>, Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe (pictured) claimed that the ABS appeared to be \u201cseeking to weaken the accuracy\u201d of the religion question, and he called on the Albanese government to \u201creconsider its proposed changes\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n Costelloe was concerned that the proposed change to the question would \u201cdisengage religion from culture\u201d, arguing that the existing question assessed religious identification as part of a person\u2019s culture and heritage. Changing the question, he said, would also affect the ability of the church and other users to compare data over time.<\/span><\/p>\n Erroneously, Costelloe claimed that the new question would not provide a \u2018Yes\u2019 tick box while it would provide a tick box for \u2018No\u2019, and would thus create a \u201cnew bias\u201d in favour of \u2018no religion\u2019. This was not what the ABS was proposing.<\/span><\/p>\n Costelloe also argued that people from ethnic backgrounds or with poor literacy and language skills would face challenges in writing their religious affiliation into the free-text box.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n More archbishops and other Catholic figures picked up the baton, echoing Costelloe\u2019s arguments. Church figures took their concerns directly to the top of the federal government. On 1 May 2024, <\/span>the <\/span>Catholic Weekly<\/span><\/i> reported<\/span><\/a> that, since \u201cdiscovering\u201d the proposed change to the religion question in March, \u201csome Catholic Church leaders have already written to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n In response, the ABS <\/span>issued a public clarification<\/span><\/a> to counter the claims made in media reports. Privately, in a briefing document sent to the responsible minister, Andrew Leigh, on 3 May 2024, and with Treasurer Jim Chalmers in CC, the ABS also addressed the \u201cinaccuracies\u201d of the media reports. <\/span>In this document \u2013 in which Dr Leigh noted the ABS\u2019s statement on \u201cthe work underway to improve the question on religious affiliation in the 2026 Census\u201d \u2013 the ABS explained the need for the change to the question:<\/span><\/p>\n The ABS has determined that updates are required to the way religious affiliation data is collected in the Census to better reflect the diversity of the Australian community and address concerns regarding quality of data with the existing question.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n The changes being considered and tested by the ABS look to remove the assumption that a person has a religion, and also to treat equally the 139 religious groups in the classification by not having a picklist for the 9 most common religions.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n …the ABS is of the view that the question \u2018What is the person\u2019s religion?\u2019 contains an assumption that the person has a religion and makes the answer \u201cNo religion\u201d grammatically incorrect.\u201d The question \u201cDoes the person have a religion?\u201d is thought to be a better question with two options for response: \u201cNo\u201d, and \u201cYes\u201d (specify religion)\u201d. Other questions follow this design \u2013 for example, the question is \u201cDoes the person use a language other than English at home?\u201d not \u201cWhat language other than English does the person use at home?<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n In the same document, the ABS summarised the concerns raised by religious groups about the proposed changes as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n \u2026that the data will not be comparable between Censuses, that the question concept is being changed in undesirable ways, and\/or that the question will be harder for people to complete and reduce data quality, particularly for minor religious groups.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n But then the ABS comprehensively rejected these concerns. On the concern about comparability with past Censuses, the ABS told the ministers:<\/span><\/p>\n While maintaining consistency in questions to support comparability over time is a consideration for the ABS, this is balanced against changes to improve accuracy, relevance and inclusivity.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n The religious affiliation question has undergone five major changes since 1911: including instructions that question was optional (1933); including instructions that a person could report they had no religion (1971); introducing a pick list (1991), changing from religious denomination to religion (2001) and moving the \u2018no religion\u2019 option to the first mark box (2016).<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n A case could have been made against each of these changes about the impact on data comparability.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Addressing the concern that some people would experience difficulty writing their religion in the free text box, the ABS said:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n People have always been able to write in their response to answer the question. In 2021, 2.5 million responses (over 10% of respondents) were reported via write-in.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n The statement that the inability for people to enter perfect data in a free text box will lead to poor data is not necessarily correct. The Census has many free text boxes and advanced coding processes that successfully classify responses against a classification. This is the process for the majority of religious groups currently.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The FOI documents also reveal that the ABS was justified in its confidence in forging ahead with the reformulated question for the major test in September. In March 2024, an \u2018executive brief\u2019 stated that, after five rounds of cognitive interviewing, the question \u2018Does the person have a religion?\u2019 (with \u2018No\u2019 and \u2018Yes\u2019 responses, plus an open text box) was \u201cthe most successful question\u201d and had \u201ctested sufficiently\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n In late February, a senior executive had noted \u201cwe haven\u2019t seen any issues with people feeling its [sic] more of a burden, but we haven\u2019t been able to test at scale with large households\u2026\u201d. They added that the question design could be reverted to the old one following the 2024 Census Test \u201cif we absolutely need\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rationalemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Part1-Talking-points-v1.png\")
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