On August 11, every household in Australia will be required to take part in the Census. In the lead up to Census night, SBS answers the key questions about when, why, and how the national survey is conducted.
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TRANSCRIPT
Every five years, the Australian Bureau of Statistics counts every person and every household in the country as part of the Census.
This comprehensive snapshot of Australia includes everyone in the country, as well as those on holiday, international students and temporary visa holders.
This year, the Census will take place on Tuesday, August 11.
Dr Liz Allen is a Demographer at the ANU Centre for Social Policy Research.
"The census is much like a family photograph at one point in time. It captures a still of who we are, how we live at a point of time in Australia's history. The census is vitally important for a whole range of things from essential services like healthcare and education to roads to sewage to just information about us. The census is the only way that we can understand the socioeconomic circumstances of our lives in the cities, in the regions, all the way down to our suburbs."
From late July, households across the country will have received instructions in the mail on how to complete the Census.
Provided they know where they will be on Census night, they can complete the form right away.
For people staying in hotels, bed and breakfasts or motels, paper Census forms can be collected from accommodation staff and those in short-term rentals like Airbnb can complete the form online if they have internet access.
Dr Allen says while it may seem like people are being excluded, it's important to collect the data on a single evening.
"That anchor point gives us a scope of who to include and who not to include in that moment. And that's important because it might look like we're excluding folks while they're visiting overseas or we're including too many people on census night that are perhaps here only temporarily. But what happens on that moment in time is it gives us an important reference point of who's in the country at that particular time."
This year, the Census will include changes to certain questions, such as those around sex, household and family relationships.
In addition to new questions on sexual orientation and gender, questions will also change in ten existing topics.
LGBTQ+ Health Australia CEO, Nicky Bath, says people have long advocated for the inclusion of these questions.
"There's a really strong data need for us to be able to extrapolate data from the census in regards to people with diverse sexual orientations and gender. The census used as a tool to be able to gather information to support planning of public services, health services, policymakers, and also assist research."
While those additions have been welcomed, advocates say there's still a way to go, with questions around innate variations of sex characteristics, such as intersex, still excluded.
Bath says work is still being done to push for such questions to be asked.
"There's significant health disparities experienced by LGBTQ+ people and people with innate variations of sex characteristics. And there isn't a question in the census for people with innate variations of sex characteristics. And so many of us for many years have been working and advocating for the inclusion of these questions, an improved gender question, well, the new gender question and the new question on sexual orientation. We also did advocate for the question on innate variations of sex characteristics and we were unsuccessful with regards to that."
Census data is also used to inform decisions around language services, settlement support, infrastructure, transport and more.
For example, SBS uses Census data to ensure its content reflects the country's evolving demographics.
While information about the Census is available in 26 different languages on the ABS website, the questionnaire must be completed in English.
People who speak a language other than English can contact the Translating and Interpreting Service, which provides access to interpreters who speak more than 150 languages.
Peter Doukas is the chair of the Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia - FECCA.
He says it's important for everyone to have equal access to the survey.
"Well, it's obviously the language barriers that have always existed. People don't understand what the census is. And in a couple of projects that we've done with the ABS, it's been primarily to make the census more accessible, both from a linguistic perspective and also in a culturally appropriate way so that people understand that they're not giving away private information in a way that's going to be used against them. Sometimes there's a bit of sensitivity about interacting with government as well. So explaining to community members that the census is a process that the Commonwealth government undertakes every five years. It's no harm to them, it doesn't cost them anything, and it's used for the collection of accurate demographic data that helps everybody."
Everyone in Australia is expected to complete the Census and will receive a formal direction to do so if they don't on the night.
If they refuse, they can be prosecuted and fined up to $364 per day.
As the night approaches, people should also look out for potential Census-related scams.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics also reminds Australians that it will never ask for information such as bank details, money or donations, passwords, identity documents, or a tax file number.
ABS spokesperson Hassan Hawatmeh spoke to SBS Arabic about what people should look out for to make sure they're dealing with official Census material.
"Household will receive the census letter. The letter will have all the instructions, including 16 digits code and also temporary password for them to log in and complete the census form. The census form is only available through the ABS website. So that's the first thing. The second thing, field staff, all of them, they have ID card. They must wear it all the time. So this is to identify they come in from the ABS and it always has their picture and also the name and even their employee number."
