‘Kidding yourself’: Stark warning as 2026 Census data is collected

The first census night is tonight and everyone's being encouraged by the government to fill out your form so that the data you provide can be used to deliver the services that you want now and into the future in the right locations around our country.At least that's the official line.But if you don't think the activists use the census as a weapon, then you are kidding yourself.And if you think that the independence of the Australian Bureau of Statistics means that the government has no hand in how tonight's census document is shaped, then think again there too.The Albanese government has its fingerprints all over this census.While the ABS will tell you that they draft the questions, and they do, the government is absolutely involved in the topics.

This year, as an example, it was the Albanese government that asked for a question to be included about gender and sexual orientation.Yes, Labor put that in.Here is Jenny Telford, the ABS General Manager in charge of the Census, confirming exactly this today in an interview with my colleague, Kieran Gilbert.

Do politicians shape this?Has there been any political input to some of these questions like around sexuality and so on?

So the way the content and the questions work in the Australian Census, it is the Australian Government who decide the topics that we include in the Census.So they make that decision and then they request the ABS to design a set of questions, a set of response options that statistically will give us the best data.

While he tried hard, Jenny Telford there refused to disclose which minister or ministers, or perhaps prime ministers, told them to include those questions on gender.

When you say the government suggested this change or this addition on sexuality, which minister does that?Who in the government makes that recommendation or that direction to the ABS?

Well, the ABS actually makes a recommendation based on everything we hear through that consultation process.We make a recommendation to government on the topics we think are important to include in the census, and then the government ultimately makes that decision.

But the direction itself, it just comes from government, not from, is it the minister's office?I'm just trying to work out where the direction comes from.

It is an Australian government decision to include particular topics and to retain particular topics on the census for.

He tried, didn't he?Let's look again at the very issue of religion.Now, as I've shown you over recent weeks, this is an important topic and one where the activists have really been busy in recent years.To this point, here's the former founder of the sex party, Fiona Patton, campaigning hard for the no religion vote tonight.

You know, when I was younger, I went to Sunday school.I was christened.I was confirmed.I even growing up dreamt I was going to become a nun, but I'm not religious now.And so when you're asked on the census this week, what is your religion?If you're not religious now, mark no religion.

Now, as I said before, the order of the questions on the paper tonight matter as well.And the fact that the no religion box is the first box you can select when you get to the question.Well, that advantages those running that argument.You saw it there from Fiona Patton, that increasingly Australia is a secular nation because the first spot on any ballot benefits the donkey vote.That's why in an election campaign, when names are drawn out of the hat for a spot on the ballot box,every candidate wants to be the first name at the top.

And so when you have a question about religion and that top spot goes to the no religion camp, will they benefit?Absolutely.As I discussed last night with polling expert, Dr. Dorian von Freehold.

The current census framing is somewhat peculiar in that it's a checkbox question where the first option is no religion.Now, being a guy with a PhD in consumer psychology, having lectured many a course on research methodologies, that's a rookie error.You fall straight into what's called the primacy effect, which means that the first option visible to respondents gets a disproportionate amount of eyeballs and is more likely to be selected.

Now, when pushed, the ABS say that no religion's up the top because it was the box that achieved the greatest vote at the last census.But how disingenuous is that?At the last census in 2021, if you want to measure just one religion against no religion, in fact, it was Christianity that received the greatest vote.Christianity, reported the ABS, was the most common religion in Australia, with 43 .9 % of people identifying as Christian.Now contrast that with no religion, that recorded 38 .9%.So if the order is determined by the largest number of responses, then why isn't Christianity at the top of tonight's census form?

Well, because of the way the question is framed.That's why.Because rather than give Australians a Christian boxto tick, the ABS breaks down the Christian faith church by church.And so that means the Christian vote on the form tonight gets split.And because it is split rather than contained in a single box, the no religious crowd will they stay at the top.

See why the framing of a question matters as much as it does?It's just like political polling.The question you ask can be as important as the answer you get.Now also understand this too.Of all the religions listed on the census form, it is only, only the Christian faith that is broken down by denomination.So broken down church by church.

No other religion gets this treatment.The ABS, as an example, does not split Islam into its distinct branches of Sunni Islam or Shia Islam.Nor does the census split Hindu into its various denominations.Heck, for that matter, the ABS doesn't even split out the no religion box either, does it?If it was consistent, the ABS would have a box for the atheists, perhaps one for the agnostics as well.See what I mean?

What also concerns me with this question on religion is the message we send as a country by leaving Judaism off the list of specified religions and requiring Jewish Australians to record themselves under other.At a time in our nation's history where anti -Semitism has never been worse, I would have thought that including Judaism on the form would be a powerful message that Jews matter.And yes, you can give me all the reasons why, statistically, other religions are prioritised in terms of population, but given the ABS confirming today that theAlbanese government was involved in the development of the census, then for the government not to take this opportunity to send a clear signal to Australian Jews is disappointing.Now, why this matters as much as it does beyond the recording of faith or otherwise of Australians is that census data is used across government, local, state and federal.And what you measure matters.

This data on religion will be used to plan for religious schools, hospices, perhaps hospitals of religious faith.It's used to accommodate ceremonies, cemeteries and other burial spaces.Trust me too, it'll be used by some to argue for the removal of the morning prayer from our parliaments as it has been in the past.Even things like laws in relation to legalised prostitution and planning rules around brothels, All things that have been liberalised in recent years use census information on religion and faith as part of the political debate.Now, I'm not passing judgment on any of these things.My point is that when activists campaign for census language changes and questions to be included or removed, they don't do it out of the goodness of their statistical hearts.

They do it because they have an agenda to change our country, And a big part in changing our country is the denial of our Judeo -Christian foundations.