The nation’s statistics agency told a senator that it had “not seen evidence” that the campaign encouraging Australians to mark ‘No religion’ if they were not religious posed a risk to the integrity of this year’s Census.
In a letter to Liberal Senator Dean Smith just days before the Census in August, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said it had not sought legal advice in regards to the ‘Census — Not Religious?’ campaign (see letter below).
On the previous day, 5 August, Senator Smith had asked a series of questions in a letter to the head of the ABS, David Gruen, including questions about whether the campaign was lawful or risked undermining the integrity of the Census and public confidence in the data.
In reply, Dr Gruen said that the ABS was aware of the campaign as “one of several” circulating around the Census on topics including the religion question.
Download the full letter here (PDF)
“The ABS has not sought legal advice related to this campaign. We have not seen evidence that would suggest the campaign poses a risk to the integrity of the Census,” he said.
“The ABS has responded to a small number of public and media enquiries asking if we were aware of the ‘Census – Not religious? Mark no religion’ campaign.”
In response to Senator Smith’s question on whether the ABS thought it was appropriate for advocacy groups to conduct campaigns about the Census religion question, Dr Gruen said the ABS was “grateful to the many groups” that were encouraging participation in the Census and helping their communities to complete the form accurately.
“Many of these groups and organisations consult with the ABS and invite us to fact-check their guidance,” said Dr Gruen.
The ‘Census — Not Religious?’ campaign, which was supported by the Rationalist Society and several other pro-secular and non-religious community groups, urged Australians to honestly reflect on their beliefs and mark ‘no religion’ if they were not religious.
Over several years, the campaign has maintained a strong engagement with the ABS, including through meetings with ABS staff and via email correspondence.
The ABS’s own guidance for answering the religion question included the statement: “If the person identifies with no religion at all, select ‘No religion’.
In early August, some faith leaders expressed concerns in The Australian about the ‘Census — Not Religious?’ campaign and the design of a questionnaire that was available for people to complete voluntarily on the campaign’s website.
The quiz included a series of questions that encouraged people to reflect honestly on their religious or non-religious affiliation and then suggested options for people to consider in answering the Census question, with these options including to mark their religion or ‘no religion’, depending on the answers provided.
In response to the media reports, the ABS issued a statement saying it was “aware of campaigns aimed at influencing individuals’ responses” and encouraging people to answer the religion question accurately and according to their own beliefs, but did not point the finger at any particular campaign.
At the time, the ‘Census – Not Religious?’ campaign welcomed the ABS statement, given that the campaign’s central message was that people should reflect their authentic selves when answering the religion question.
The ‘Census – Not Religious?’ said it was concerned to see extensive misinformation about the Census religion question on social media, including with some social media accounts urging people to mark a religion even if they were not religious and warning of the threat of Australia becoming “a Muslim country” if people did not mark themselves as ‘Christian’.
The campaign also noted that it was aware of campaigns being run by religious groups, as well as other pro-secular campaigns encouraging people to mark ‘No religion’.
In his letter, Dr Gruen told Senator Smith that the ABS was concerned when advocacy encouraged people to respond “in a manner that is inconsistent with the intent of the question.”
“When the ABS becomes aware of campaigns we assess them for accuracy, reach and impact. If campaigns are found to be factually incorrect, we take action to encourage accurate completion and maintain public confidence in the Census,” he wrote.
The Rationalist Society of Australia has urged federal members of parliament to help safeguard the integrity of the Census given the perceived political interference in the ABS’ process of developing and testing questions in 2024.
In late 2024, the ABS decided to re-use the existing wording – ‘What is the person’s religion?’ – after religious lobbyists had demanded Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the government to directly intervene and “reverse” proposed changes, and after the government had missed several ABS deadlines, leading to the cancellation of a critical major test.
In late 2023, the ABS had proposed changing the question to ‘Do you have a religion?’ in order to “support more accurate data collection” after two rounds of public consultation found overwhelming support for removing the bias from the Census religion question.
Several other polls show that the leading nature of the question produces an undercount of the non-religious population by about 10 percentage points.
Along with the Rationalist Society of Australia, the other groups that supported the ‘Census – Not Religious?’ campaign were Humanists Australia, National Secular Lobby, Humanists Victoria, The Secular Association of NSW, Skeptics Australia (Victoria branch), and Recovering from Religion Australia.
See all of the RSA’s reporting about the Census question here.
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Si Gladman is Executive Director of the Rationalist Society of Australia. He also hosts ‘The Secular Agenda’ podcast.
Image: Australian Bureau of Statistics