The chief statistician of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has told the Senate that the decision on the final wording of the religion question for the next Census in 2026 will be one made by him.

At Senate estimates last week, Dr David Gruen confirmed that he and the ABS, and “not the government”, would finalise the final structure of the question.

His comments follow a public campaign this year by religious lobbyists, in particular the Catholic Church hierarchy, and Liberal Party figures calling for the Albanese government to intervene in the ABS process and block proposed changes to the wording of the question.

The ABS is currently testing a newly formulated question that removes the bias that presumes all respondents have a religion. The proposal introduces a two-step solution:

• changing the text of the main question from “What is the person’s religion?” to a simple yes/no formulation, “Does the person have a religion?”;
• then swapping out a checklist of 10 religions and replacing it with a space for people of faith to write their affiliation.

At a Senate estimates hearing last week, Liberal Senator Dean Smith asked Dr Gruen whether the “structure of the question” would be completely his authority as the chief statistician.

Dr Gruen responded: “That’s correct”.

He acknowledged that parliament would have the ability to disallow at the topic level, but not how questions were asked.

“The parliament decides the topics, and it’s left to the professional judgement of the Bureau of Statistics and — you’re correct — ultimately to me to decide what question or questions will best elucidate answers for those topics,” Dr Gruen said.

“As you are aware, that is a decision for us, not for the government.”

Earlier this year, Catholic leaders used the media to call on the government to intervene. Liberal state MP Jing Lee echoed the church’s demands, while former prime minister John Howard accused the public service of being “anti religious”. 

At Senate estimates in June, Senator Smith asked Dr Gruen to clarify what the ABS was doing regarding the “very sensitive and, dare I say, increasingly contentious” matter of the religion question.

At last week’s hearing, Dr Gruen said he had held a “series of meetings with a large number of groups”.

“We have heard their views about the nature of the question that they would like asked on religious affiliation,” he said.

“So we have had those conversations with religious groups. We had something like 10 meetings, I would say, with different groups, both religious and secular, and we are close to making a decision which I think we will announce in the new year.”

The ABS proposal to introduce a two-step religion question received overwhelming public support from the phase 2 consultation process. Previously, the ABS reported that the initial phase of the public consultation identified “potential bias in the question wording” as a major concern.

The Rationalist Society of Australia is part of a coalition of pro-secular organisations, known as Census21 – Not Religious? Mark ‘No Religion’, that has been calling for change to the religion question.

If you want to support our work, please make a donation or become a member.

Si Gladman is Executive Director at the Rationalist Society of Australia. You can contact him at sigladman@rationalist.com.au or follow him on Twitter at @si_gladman