Census changes ‘to dilute religion’, says Catholic archbishop

One of the nation’s most senior Catholics has warned proposed changes to the national census introduced a ‘new bias in favour of no religion’.

Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president Timothy Costelloe. Picture: Fiona Basile

One of the nation’s most senior Catholics has warned proposed changes to the census regarding religion could lead to a higher number of invalid responses, ­accusing the national statistics agency of introducing a “new bias in favour of no religion”.

Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president Timothy Costelloe said he was “deeply concerned” about the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ move to ­replace a list of the eight most popular religions and corresponding boxes to tick with the option for participants to write their faith in an empty space.

The census could also ask Australians if they “have a ­religion” with a tick box for “no” but not one for “yes”.

Archbishop Costelloe said the ABS appeared to be “seeking to weaken the accuracy of one of these measures by changing the census question asked of Australians about their faith”.

“The most significant change is the removal of tick box options for people who wish to record their religion,” he writes in The Australian on Tuesday.

The proposed new question ‘Does the person have a religion? can be answered by a tick box for ‘no’, but there is no tick box for ‘yes’. Instead, the ‘no’ tick box is followed by a space where a person who has a religious belief can write in their religion.”

The concerns come as faith groups wait for the Albanese government to push ahead with a religious discrimination bill. The number of Australians ­identifying as not having a religion soared in the last census to 39 per cent.

Archbishop Costelloe said: “Reformulating the question as ‘does the person have a ­religion’ effectively destroys the measure of culture and identity as it changes the question to whether a person holds religious beliefs or not.

“This will result in the loss of a sense of religious heritage as the new format attempts to divorce religion from culture and tradition, presuming that this is no longer significant.”

Archbishop Costelloe said the proposed changes would offer the “more convenient ­option of selecting ‘no’ as the ­initial response and limiting the availability of the tick-box option while providing only write-in options for everyone else”.

Anglican Bishop of South Sydney Michael Stead said he opposed the “substantive” changes, arguing they will result in Australians taking less time to fill in their answers and produce less accurate data.

“The concern is that this data is often used by those who want to champion the fact that Australia is becoming more and more secular and less and less ­religious,” he said.

“But to the extent that it’s just reflecting that people don’t want to take the time to answer a question that’s not actually necessarily reflecting their religious affiliation.”

Federation of Islamic Councils chief executive Kamalle Dabboussy said the proposed change was “not helpful” and could increase the likelihood of inaccuracies.

“The census should be easier for people to fill in, and we don’t think this is going to make it ­easier,” he said.

“It may lead to further inaccuracies at a time where people’s faith is more at the forefront and there is much discussion of faith in Australia.”