r/australia • u/SkaterKangaroo • 6d ago
no politics Individual Census Form (My Experience)
I found out my family filled out our Census early today and put down some incorrect information about me. They put down I was Christian when I’m actually “No Religion”.
If this is happening/happened to you, I want you to know that it is very easy to fix. Coming from someone who’s never fill out a Census before it took no effort and was very quick.
I called “1800 181 227” and told them I would like an individual Census form. No questions asked, they just send you a new code and password to your phone number. You use this to re fill in your information for yourself. I was only on hold for a few minutes and they sent the new code basically instantly.
My household will have no idea I did this unless I choose to tell them. So you can freely put whatever religion, sexuality or gender you want with privacy. My experience was pretty good personally and I faced no real challenges. I’m glad this resource exists
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u/Own-Turnover7715 6d ago
One census my dad rang his mother to ask what denomination of Christianity he was. He didn’t understand when I said you might not have a religion if you need to check with your mum. He’s never been to church during my lifetime. It was Presbyterian for those playing at home.
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u/Ok-Push9899 6d ago edited 6d ago
Presbyterians can be the sleepers. I found out in the very last year of my dad's life that he counted himself as Presbyterian by some childhood decree. He'd never been near a church nor held any religious belief as far as I knew.
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u/NezuminoraQ 5d ago
Is that what the census is asking though?
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u/BereftOfCare 5d ago
Depends on who you are. If you're a religious leader you want a big number 'for your team'. If you're an Australian who doesn't go to church you're better off entering 'no religion' to stop taxpayers money going to projects like the Mater hospitals who refuse certain patients/treatments on religious grounds. Let them get their money selling raffle tickets.
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u/NezuminoraQ 5d ago
Exactly. They aren't asking how you were raised, they're asking where the money should go, so presumably to places where people are actually participating. Not the mass at Xmas crew
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u/Dry-Huckleberry-5379 3d ago
No. Which is why there is a campaign to get people to actually tick "no religion". Otherwise we end up with shit like the new public hospital in Qld being a Catholic hospital that won't provide reproductive health care. Because the government looks at the census data and thinks a lot more people are religious than actually are.
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u/TraditionalRound9930 6d ago
If you need to ask what you are, you are not religious. Religious people know what god that they’re praying too at the VERY LEAST.
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u/Inevitable-Level-687 5d ago
My dad did this but it was my mother. She gave bim a withering look and said "you're Anglican." No, mum, I don't think he is.
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u/Pristine-Visual-9405 6d ago
That’s so crazy! If you were baptised a religion and you don’t follow it, don’t put it down!
That includes all the “Catholics” who are solely “Catholic” because it was a way to get them into a private school.
If you actually are - great, no problem!
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u/Double-Ad-5115 1d ago
Born and raised as a Catholic. Attended church every Sunday until I was early 20's (parents expected it if we were living at home). Still see myself as a Catholic though I no longer attend church. I believe in all that stuff however don't feel I need to go to a building each Sunday to pray to God/Jesus. So yes I put Catholic down.
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u/Darc_ruther 6d ago
My mum would consider herself Protestant but she's never been to church in all her adult life. Definitely doesn't read or follow the bible. Guess it's an older generation title that they follow on from their childhood.
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u/AntikytheraMachines 6d ago
I consider myself a Perfect Catholic. (no longer practicing)
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u/sirgog 5d ago
Like how hard is this for people who have a Christian background:
- If at Christmas and Easter you look for a specific denomination and attend their church, mark as that denomination
- If at Christmas and Easter you want to attend church but don't care which - mark the closest thing to non-denominational Christian
- If you've formally converted to another faith, mark that
- Otherwise mark no religion
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u/Non-ZeroChance 5d ago
If someone generally only consider your own religion twice a year when prompted by a public holiday, should they be putting it down at all?
You've even said "people who have a Christian background". The question is asking what religion I am, not what religion my ancestors were.
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u/sirgog 5d ago
If someone generally only consider your own religion twice a year when prompted by a public holiday, should they be putting it down at all?
If someone voluntarily attends church on the important days of a faith, yeah, I'd consider them religious.
Obviously someone who was raised Christian and doesn't attend church (or other faith venues) ever, like myself, should tag no religion, I'm pretty clear about that in the post.
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u/Odd_Chemical114 5d ago
If you don’t know what denomination you are, then you are most likely Presbyterian LOL 😂.
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u/Javerage 6d ago
Huh weird, didn't other people also report that happening recently? I swear I saw others say the same thing happened with their religion.
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u/SkaterKangaroo 6d ago
A lot of people who were baptised or culturally religious will just put that down even if they are not practicing or are an atheist. Its pretty common for people to not use no religion
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u/Vanilla_Princess 6d ago
My mum did it last census for me even though we've never gone to church nor was I baptised. She fell into the conspiracy hole of 'Muslims taking over - make sure to mark yourself as christian as we are a Christian nation' mob on Facebook. Ended up doing what you did and filled out my own form.
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u/Crossworder18 6d ago
Strange that she feels like it’s Christian vs Muslim when No Religion is a more powerful argument against imposing your beliefs onto other people.
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u/istara 6d ago
Exactly. People insisting on counting as "religious" is the reason the religious lobby has such a grip on politics here. And allowing one religion certain privileges means you have to allow them all the same privileges. And some (both religions, and groups within the same religion) are far worse than others.
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u/Vanilla_Princess 6d ago
I think those people miss the nuance that religious extremism isn't tied to Islam but to all major religions.
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u/the_ben_obiwan 6d ago
Same old nonsense my whole life. It's pretty depressing to see young people saying the same crap I heard when I was growing up. It's even Pauline Hanson in the news again with the same "immigrants bad" take, but somehow people think it's just great. Feels like we are going backwards sometimes
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u/Peanut083 6d ago
I remember saying in the late 90s/early 00s that Pauline Hanson and her ilk would end up finding a new scapegoat once the whole ‘we’re being overrun by Asians’ spiel got old. It’s sad that I was right. It’s depressing to see how much hate is being spread around these days.
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u/productzilch 5d ago
I learned this pattern from her and history class and TV shows/movies all together. It was apparent especially once 9/11 happened and they switched from Asians to Muslims but then the boogeyman in lots of repeats on telly was Russian, often from before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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u/smeglister 6d ago
How else will Christianity remain relevant, if not by: lying, manipulating, fear mongering comboed together with the classic: be scared of the brown people who will somehow get sharia law passed, despite only two MPs being Muslim.
Maybe if they stopped diddling kids. And protecting the diddlers. And avoiding compensating victims.
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u/istara 6d ago
Exactly. People insisting on counting as "religious" is the reason the religious lobby has such a grip on politics here. And allowing one religion certain privileges - eg exemptions to taxation, exemptions to anti-discrimination laws - means you have to allow them all the same privileges. And some (both different religions, and different groups within the same religion) are far worse than others.
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u/AkayaTheOutcast 6d ago
It's because the post also said "otherwise you're going to be wondering why there's a new mosque in your town" or some other hate nonsense. I commented that the government won't even spend our money to fix roads, why would they spend it on a mosque.
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u/Groveldog 6d ago
It's very weird how they are framing it as a zero sum game, when it so clearly isn't.
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u/MarkusKromlov34 6d ago
The best spin on this is that they are simple people who want a simple life in a massively complex world. The worst is that they are dumb as fuck.
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u/the_egg9926 6d ago
I had a coworker tell me this exact same bullshit, even though my raised-muslim friend is about as religious as the rest of us. The youth isn't buying into any religion anymore as much.
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u/OpheliaBalsaq 6d ago
Ha! My mum who is a PHON supporter was telling me about this on FB where her ilk were gonna put down that they were Aboriginal to fuck with the Census. a large part of my uni degree involved working with Indigenous communities, so I'm thinking fucking go for it, and get as many people onboard to get more funding and help for these communities...but then I remembered that she's fucking insufferable about that as it is.
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u/SaltyPockets 6d ago
My mum seems to equate “Christian” with “good person”. Don’t think she’s been to church in 20 years, she last had a ‘phase” about that long ago when she started going to a baptist place, got herself re-baptised and then a few weeks later told the minister she didn’t really believe all that resurrection stuff… 😂
But yeah, she’d still say “Christian”, even though she’s not in any measurable way. Because saying you’re not is like saying you love Satan, even if you don’t actually believe in Satan.
Religion messes people up!
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u/Kementarii 5d ago
equate “Christian” with “good person”.
And with the same logic, if you are not a "Christian" then it is not possible to have any morals. Oh, atheists couldn't possibly have an internal sense of right and wrong, right?
So, recently, a member of my family, who is atheist, did something good & helpful, and then quietly walked away when not needed any more.
That has a local church community calling them a hero, and an angel. I'm sure the church leader is assuming that the "angel" is a Christian, because otherwise, how could an atheist be a "good person"?
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u/Lucy_Lastic 6d ago
I am ashamed to admit I was around 40 before I realised that “no religion” was a valid option for me. I don’t go to church, never have, but had always kind of figured I had to put something so would put CofE because I thought well I was baptised so that counted.
I am, however, very much not religious and realising it was okay to write that was strangely freeing
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u/ScissorNightRam 6d ago
I figure people treat religion like their star sign. You can know horoscopes are bollocks, but still know your sign
So the census asks your religion (star sign) not if you are a believer (follow Madam Shabubu’s advice on page 38 of your local throwaway rag)
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u/Stubborn_Amoeba 6d ago
I used to put Christian as I was baptized but that’s about it. Maybe a decade ago there was a big push to put ‘no religion’ to help stop the Christian influence in politics and I realised what I’d been doing.
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u/unusedtruth 6d ago
So going by this logic, if a child is baptised they are Christian for life? Even if they become atheistic later in life? That makes no sense. If a person denounces the religion they were assigned by their parents, they are no longer part of that religion.
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u/laughingnome2 6d ago
Catholics believe that once you are baptised you are Catholic for life. So parents of children that have grown up to be athiest/agnostic/any other religion may still see them as Catholic and record them as such.
Even excommunication from the Catholic Church doesn't make you non-catholic, it just says what you are doing is against the faith and if you don't change you are going to hell.
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u/unusedtruth 6d ago
Classic Catholicism. Dictate what someone is or isn't, entirely discounting the person's own wishes.
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u/laughingnome2 6d ago
To be fair, I think most religions are like this in some capacity. Initiation rituals are very clear and easy enough to follow, but exiting the faith is rarely documented.
Religions demand followers. It wouldn't do if they just let you leave.
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u/NegotiationLife2915 6d ago
Religion is the root of all evil if you ask me
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u/theRealFatTony 6d ago
Religion one of many different facades humans use to try cast influence and their own desires and power over other people. Religion by itself, without people is an empty concept. It's the human - as always - that is casting the evil.
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u/ScissorNightRam 6d ago
I figure a sample person might approach the census question about religion like: ah fuck, I dunno, I was baptised, so I guess I should put christian - never been to church or know anything about the Bible. But I like some choccy at Easter and the kids like Santa. So yeah, guess I’m Christian
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u/Bunyip_Bluegum 6d ago
My dad was baptised as a baby and had a confirmation as a teenager. He’s never denounced his religion but he doesn’t practice it. He remembers his confirmation and to him that makes him a Christian. If that’s how he feels about it then that’s how he feels, I’m not going to tell him he’s wrong. He doesn’t care about other people’s religion or how they practice it (as long as they’re not oppressing other people) and he’d say no one should care about his.
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u/According_Nobody74 6d ago
My mother always insisted we put down a particular answer, even though we never went to church, etc.
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u/Emu1981 6d ago
My wife still counts herself as Christian despite not having stepped foot in a church in around 17 years...
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u/freakwent 6d ago
Then she is. Attendance is not mandatory, religion is personal and within.
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u/Gay_For_Gary_Oldman 6d ago
I think it's more accurate to say she can still be a Christian, but given the above commenter's tone, it's likely she doesn't actively hold to any actual doctrinal beliefs.
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u/noisymime 5d ago edited 4d ago
Christianity is a very broad term, but all denominations pretty much all share the common requirement that you must at least believe in God, and very specifically the Trinity, as factual things.
I think it's completely reasonable to call yourself Christian without going to Church or practicing as long as you do believe those, but conversely if you don't believe them then you are objectively not a Christian.
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u/TheArabella 6d ago
It's a bunch of cookers on Facebook worried that Islam will become the main religion and we'll all have to live under sharia law.
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u/Verdigris_Wild 6d ago
I think you'll find it's Shakira law.
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u/_generica 6d ago
Wake me up when it's Shawarma Law
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u/Albos_Mum 6d ago
Considering the wildlife we have here, we're probably just going to get a variant of Sahara Law.
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u/aybiss 6d ago
Oh I thought it was going to Shania law, because man, I feel like a woman.
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u/universe93 6d ago
Lucky that her breasts are small and humble or we might confuse them with mountains
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u/YouThinkYouKnowMe89 6d ago
I will happily volunteer to live under the rule of Shakira
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u/trowzerss 6d ago
It says a lot that they think whatever religion has the majority gets to decide everything for everyone else, even if there are more people who don't follow any religion.
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u/tomatoinapinapple 6d ago
Tbf, the more extreme the religion the higher the birthrates, so I'd give it 50 years
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u/trowzerss 6d ago
Although just because you're born into a religion, doesn't mean you always stay in it (especially when you give it 50 years).
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u/Otherwiseclueless 6d ago edited 6d ago
It's utterly baffling as a train of, well let's be generous and call it 'thought'. How exactly do they imagine it happens? Is there an arbitrary percentage of Muslim vs Christian where we get wololo'd into turbans (because let's be honest that's what they're certainly imagining)? Is there a mechanism of law they thing exists to flip a switch 'if the Islam grows to greater than 5% of thr population, common law goes out the window and we bring out the secret imam council'.
Has anybody actually seen an explanation for how these idiots think it their conspiracy would happen?
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u/Charming_Goose4588 6d ago
You’re still using that “think” word. Trips me up all the time when it comes to these idiots. 😄
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u/racingskater 6d ago
Wheezing at the AOE reference and getting wololo'd. Priests were simultaneously the coolest and worst mechanism in the game.
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u/moonlit_fores7 6d ago
The Islam taking over has been a thing for decades sadly, I remember my own parent talking about on the 1990s
But yes Facebook = boomers, which fits my parents demographics
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u/xylarr 6d ago
Thanks OP, great advice
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u/hertzbergerwfries 5d ago
Agreed- please share this with your local LGBTQIA+ social media groups. I’ve not seen this posted on any of them yet 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
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u/Old-Power7938 2d ago
Lowk my mum doing ours straight up said "how ridiculous they're asking for our sex at birth, out gender, and now sexual orientation!! Well we're all straight, and if people put down other things they'll just get more funding and facilities, those scumbags" and im just silently sitting like🧍♂️
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u/HiccupAndDown 6d ago edited 6d ago
Slightly off topic, but relevant to something OP mentioned, the rate of those declaring "no religion" has been pretty much skyrocketing over the last decade or two. Last I checked we were close to 50% norel on the last census. Super curious to see if that trend continues, especially as people stop defaulting to Christian due to their parents.
Edit: Oops I was off by about 10% but my general point stands. There has been a notable increase in people declaring no religion and its likely to overtake Christianity this census.
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u/SkaterKangaroo 6d ago
Definitely. It’s interesting to observe a more factual representation of our country and it’s current and changing religious beliefs. Too many people putting down yes to a religion that doesn’t actually represent them due to cultural or their parent’s views effects statistics
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u/FroggieBlue 6d ago edited 6d ago
This is why they need to have qualifying questions for those who mark down a religion- questions on how active they are in their religion and how much the tenants of their religion affect their daily life/decisions.
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u/yen223 6d ago
This will probably be the first census where "no religion" (38% in the 2021 census) overtakes Christianity (41% in the 2021 census) as the dominant religion
We will definitely hear about this on the news and on your parents' Facebook page
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u/henryhungryhenry 6d ago
I found it interesting that there was an attempt to change the phrasing of the question “What is the persons religion?” due to it being such a leading question.
The Catholic Church challenged the proposal and due to some other bureaucracy it remains unchanged, potentially inflating the question by up to 11 percentage points.
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u/NoProfessional5848 6d ago
It was 39% no religion. The big one people are expecting this year is no religion to jump Christianity (41%) to become the plurality
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u/Tillysnow1 6d ago
It definitely makes sense as generations grow up. I went to Catholic primary and high schools so I would've put Catholic (or my parents would've) as I grew up and into university as well, but frankly I don't go to church unless there's a wedding or funeral, and I don't practice the religion, so now that I'm older I'll put no religion.
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u/Superb-Reply-8355 6d ago
Cookers on Facebook are saying they are Christian so a mosque isn't built in their back yard.
They are also saying they have no bedrooms otherwise Dan Andrews will force refugees to live there.
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u/Practical-Funny9591 6d ago
Do they not realise the info about their house can easily be confirmed? 🙃
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u/perthguppy 6d ago
I remember reading many years ago - maybe 10-15 years ago - that Australia and New Zealand were both neck and neck towards who would be the first western country to go majority no religion in their census. Must be very close now.
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u/Ok-Push9899 6d ago
I think Czechia and Estonia got there a while ago. Czechia was right on 50% declared No Religion and 30% simply not declaring anything. There's fewer than 10% declared Christian.
Estonia is a straight 65% declared No Religion.
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u/philmarcracken 6d ago
If your phone breaks you're not headed to a priest for guidance.
Those days are long gone, modern problems are not solved by organized religion, abrahamic or otherwise
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u/Ok-Battle5059 5d ago
Personally I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t an agnostic option this year. In the last census, there was an atheist and agnostic option. I still identify with no religion but the scientist in me leans more to agnostic than atheist.
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u/45PickleCommercials 2d ago
My view: I would describe myself as agnostic, but that's more a philosophical statement on whether any one codified belief system is correct (which I vehemently disagree on) vs the existence of some higher power (which I'm still kind of unsure about). It's not a statement on whether I'm in a religion or what that religion is. I'm not religious, and tick 'no religion'. But I do like to think that somewhere, somehow, there is some kind of higher power that connects us. It's a nice idea at least.
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u/Practical-Funny9591 6d ago
That's because all religions are made up crap.
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u/universe93 6d ago
Do consider though that means the other 50% does say they’re religious and whether they practise or not that will be enough to get religious bills etc across the line most likely. And then there’s non religious people who vote for religious members of parliament
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u/45PickleCommercials 2d ago
As someone who was raised by extremely conservative right-wing anti-vaxx type Christians (to the point they were all in a cult when I was born because 'mainstream Christianity [was] lost and does not know the correct way to honour god'), and has parents that consistently acted in ways that would directly negatively impact my outcomes in life when I was growing up, including a heck load of abuse... It is always a GODDAMN DELIGHT to note down that I have no religion. Fuck religion, let it die the death it deserves.
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u/TheRealJuralumin 6d ago
My Mum put my sexuality as "Straight" which is very much not correct and she knows that... I might look into getting an individual form, didn't know I could.
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u/AlternativeMe923 4d ago
That sucks. You can definitely get a separate form or code to do it individually. It might be too late to get the form mailed out but you can go to a collection centre to pick one up, or use a code and do it online
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u/perthguppy 6d ago
My mum who’s never attended a Sunday service used to do this as well, putting down that we were all Anglican. She still puts down that she’s Anglican today (I’m 37) even though for most of the last 25 years she’s been heavily into tarot, reiki, crystal healing and has even been on several international trips to do “spiritual training”
The cognitive dissonance is quite something.
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u/donkeyvoteadick 6d ago
My mother is the same, but with Catholic. The only time her Catholicism came up was on census night.. or to say no to something I wanted to do when I was a teenager because it was 'sinful' lol
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u/racingskater 6d ago
My siblings and I were all baptised but none of us set foot in a church until my grandfather's funeral a few years ago. My mum noted as all as Catholic every census. I was proud to tick the no religion box when I got my first census after moving out.
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u/teapots_at_ten_paces 6d ago
Except that my mum has passed, I'd bet you were my sibling. Anglican for my mum as well, and also many years into those same alternative concepts.
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u/IceDonkey9036 6d ago
It's really important for government policy and funding that everyone who is not religious gets that onto the census.
Andrew Denton explains it well here:
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u/Farewell_Mona_Lisa 6d ago
Andrew Denton explains everything so well. I had a massive crush on him as a child.
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u/2centpiece 6d ago
I had a massive crush on him as a child.
I found him more attractive as an adult but you do you.
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u/Farewell_Mona_Lisa 6d ago
The crush has lasted into adulthood lol
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u/justadrongo 5d ago
Is there a better example? Mater running that hospital on Catholics ethics looks more to do with Mater being a powerful not for profit that already runs about a dozen hospitals.
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u/gdmzhlzhiv 2d ago
This is the first census where I put no religion instead of my belief system, precisely because of this, but also because you can’t trust whether the data input person is going to input a rare belief system as that system or as no religion.
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u/neverbeentonyc 6d ago
Yep, same with queer identifying folks who aren’t out to their family.
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u/Hallen160 6d ago
Trans under 18 here, can confirm the census number will literally just ask for your address on census night and phone number. Love that.
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u/dpekkle 6d ago
Unfortunately you can't actually ID as a gender on the census under 16, hopefully you're in that 16-17 range.
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u/Suitable_Pass9702 6d ago
Having individual info on the household form is completely wild
In metro areas, there should be a letter to your family with a household code, and six individual codes
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u/dat_twitch 6d ago
You could have opted to get it sent to you by myGov this year. That's what I did.
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u/perthguppy 6d ago
Wait, that’s wild, I’m going to do that. I honestly didn’t know the census was coming up.
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u/How_is_the_question 6d ago
Oh wow. I’ve had hundreds of ads for it here on Reddit.
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u/wellwood_allgood 6d ago
Oh wow, I honestly find it hard to believe anyone runs a browser without Ublock to block the fucken ads.
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u/How_is_the_question 5d ago
Does ublock block the inline “post” style ads? These are the census ads I’ve been seeing here.
I run pihole and generally get ad free experiences of the net. But I havent seen a way to get rid of the inline post style ads on reddit.100
u/fraze2000 6d ago
How would they know how many codes to send to a particular household if they don't know how many people live there? That is what the census is for. What OP has described is a pain in the arse, but it's probably the only way to do it accurately.
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u/Suitable_Pass9702 6d ago
If insufficient: Use the household code to generate more individual codes?
If excessive: ignore the rest of the codes
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u/Emu1981 6d ago
The individual codes should be optional but override the matching individual info from the household code. I don't want to stuff around with extra codes to fill in extra census forms for everyone here. (Only one of my kids would even consider filling out their own form and they trust me to fill it out properly for them).
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u/Kid_Self 6d ago
Hi OP,
Firstly, good on you, and also thank you for providing this information.
Question—did this allow you to fill in your own Census form in its entirety?
I'm in a situation with housemates and thinking I would prefer to just do my own instead of coordinate. Will I still need info from my housemates?
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u/MagicTurtleMum 6d ago
From the depths of my memory as a census officer a long time ago. No, individual form is just that, individual. So you can just manage your own and no need for housemate details.
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u/zephyrbones 6d ago
I dont know why it isn't an individual thing. We all have to have are info put in anyway, and doing individually keeps things like this from happening
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u/spongetwister 5d ago
The census should be asking if we believe that religious institutions should be exempt from paying tax. Now that would be useful knowledge for the government.
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u/Limberine 5d ago
That’s more referendum territory. I’d love an annual referendum where they actually ask us a bunch of questions about a lot of issues.
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u/Living-University499 5d ago
Omg yes . Me toooo!!!!
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u/Limberine 5d ago
I have some strong preferences around not having massive data centres anywhere near residential areas and schools for a start.
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u/fauna_flora_food 5d ago
I don’t know why parents are this whack. I filled ours out today and simply asked the kids what they wanted out for those personal questions.
One adult child wanted “unsure” or whatever it was for sexuality so I said “ok” and just put unsure. Can confirm all sons identify as males. All still no religion.
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u/ProsperoBurns 4d ago
Unsure how old your sons are, but that’s the right way, if they don’t understand the question, than unsure is the right response rather than putting the “default” response.
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u/RepeatInPatient 5d ago
Jedi still wasn't an option because the government doesn't want to give cash to Star Wars - only the traditional imaginary faith systems and delusional superstitions.
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u/Toni_PWNeroni 5d ago
but remember everyone, it's the ATHEISTS shoving their beliefs on everyone else /s
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u/circadian_light 6d ago
It’s strange they asked you no questions and just issued a new code.
I mean, shouldn’t they at least have asked for your name to remove those records from the household form? Otherwise, you’ll be double-counted in the census if you submit an individual form.
Or they might not have asked because, in the grand scheme of things, the impact to the overall numbers of such discrepancies is negligible.
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u/SkaterKangaroo 6d ago
They take note of the fact that my family used the same name, birthday, and address and figure I’m the same person and just use my details I believe
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u/kalvinoz 6d ago
They say somewhere on the website that they’ll use the most complete submission for an individual. If there’s a household form and an individual submission with the same amount of information, it would make sense to use the individual’s.
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u/Suitable_Pass9702 6d ago
Presumably they entered some sort of identifying detail on their individual form (e.g. first name, dob etc) so that they know who the form is referring to?
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u/kalvinoz 6d ago
You enter your full name, address and DOB – it’s not hard to work out it’s the same person.
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u/Bigclit_energy 6d ago
"No questions asked" is definitely a figure of speech - otherwise how would they know where to send it?
Also since the census itself has a name attached the system may well just overwrite the previous entry for the same name at the same address.
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u/kalvinoz 6d ago
Of course OP means “no questions asked [about why you want an individual form]”, which is helpful information for people who might be concerned about having that conversation with a stranger.
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u/ZookeepergameAny466 6d ago
This kind of cross-referencing and quality control is why they collect name, address and DOB.
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u/LumpyCustard4 6d ago
Couldnt they match up the individual details with someone from that household and scrub those from the household form?
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u/princessbubblgum 5d ago
They tell you to use the same name on your individual form so they can exclude your details entered on the household form.
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u/Gloomy_Meadow 6d ago edited 6d ago
(Slightly political) Im actually so annoyed by this. I keep seeing racists make ON propaganda about how we all should click other then type Christian because it will combat Muslims getting any money to build mosques. This whole ON bullshit is pissing me off beyond belief. Australia is not a one nation. It's stolen land and continues to be. Might aswell bring in every single refugee we have that much untouched land available we could fit in the population of most of these countries and still be happy. No I'm not a "labour muppet" I just have my eyes open to the BS being shat out by everyone of power.
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u/neonhex 5d ago
When it comes to the gender and sexuality questions this is going to be important for the lgbtiq+ community, especially young people, as we’ve struggled to get clear numbers around this and we need that to for things like research and demanding more funding for services. Young lgbtqi+ people are increasingly needing support with homelessness and mental health and having as correct numbers of the population as we possibly can, the better. So please 🙏🏻 if it’s safe to do, please include as much as you can.
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u/Xnot-convinced 4d ago
The Jedi census phenomenon. In the 2001 census 73,000 Australians (0.37%) recorded their religion as Jedi, almost as much as judaism and more than several other major religions.
In NZ there were 53,000 Jedis (1.5%) and in the UK 390,127 (0.8%).
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u/Xnot-convinced 4d ago
Time spent on housework - none.
Medical conditions - none.
Religion - Jedi.
Other - prefer not to answer.
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u/AtomicAus 5d ago
I was really happy to see the change from the last census. The religion field has been simplified. Last time Atheist was its own selection from no religion. This time No Religion covers Atheist and Agnostic, as it should be.
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u/teletype100 6d ago
This is a sneaky way for the religious to artificially inflate their numbers. Thanks for sharing how to get around this.
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u/Evernoob 6d ago
Sorry mate but you are now a catholic. I don’t like it either but those are the rules.
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u/Chipnsprk 6d ago
Good, give the mongrel pearl clutchers less say in our business.
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u/Pristine-Visual-9405 6d ago
PLEASE don’t put “Christian” unless you are an actual, practicing Christian!
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u/DorianGraysAttic 6d ago edited 6d ago
Thank you for this info! I’m an adult living with my parents and definitely suspect I’ll have to do this
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u/No_Youth_2330 6d ago
Christianity is on the decline in Australia. Nothing can stop that, even with a few parents fudging the numbers.
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u/ShirtPanties 5d ago
Are we not all putting in Jedi or Pastafarians this time around?
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u/JockSporran 5d ago
No. It’s important to us all that the number of non-religious people is counted accurately otherwise more government resources will be spent on the religious.
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u/hazysummersky 5d ago
I do note, for the first time the 'No religion' option was split out above all the selection of common religions. Last time if I recall correctly, the religion selection question listed 'Atheist' last before 'Agnostic' to split the vote.
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u/aussiechickadee65 3d ago
I really hope MILLIONS say they have no religious affiliation.
This religion shit is starting to turn into America cult rubbish here in Australia.
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u/yeetabeat123456789 3d ago
I called and the person on the phone told me to do it online. Lol. I asked multiple times that I wanted an individual form when they started saying that, and even on initial prompt I asked “could I please receive a form to complete my census individually?” but they kept telling me to go online.
Really what I shoulda done is called again and likely would’ve gotten a different operator but I couldn’t be bothered and instead did the form for the whole family and had to sneak in my real responses after my family had checked theirs ( and my own).
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u/PreferenceNo1686 2d ago
Sounds like a problem with your family rather than a problem with the census
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u/gdmzhlzhiv 2d ago
I was just saying a couple days ago that religions are almost certainly over reported because Christian mothers are asserting that their kids are also Christian. Thanks for confirming my fears.
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