2021 census: first wave of data released today
Caitlin Cassidy
Cast your mind back to last August and you probably remember filling out the census, alongside millions of other Australians.
The first and biggest release of this year’s census is out today. It’s the first time since 2016 that Australians will have up-to-date data on where we live, who we are and what we do. It’s a mammoth task to wade through, and takes months to collate.
The 2021 census was completed during the Covid-19 pandemic, when many Australians were in lockdown and working from home and overseas migration had largely halted.
Questions were asked about two new topics – long-term health conditions and service in the Australian defence force.
It’s also the first time “non-binary”was offered as an option to report a person’s gender.
The question directly feeds into the official estimates of Australia’s population, making it one of the questionnaire’s most important questions.
While it should provide a more accurate snapshot of Australia’s LGBTQ+ community than in the past, when “other” was the only option apart from male or female, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has been criticised for neglecting to provide additional categories for people who are transgender or intersex.
An official count won’t be published in the first release. An ABS spokesperson said in a statement:
Later this year, the ABS will be doing more analysis on non-binary sex responses and … working in consultation with key stakeholders in the LGBTQ+ community to understand the complexities, data quality and usefulness of the data.
At this time, the ABS will be publishing our findings and looking ahead to the next Census.
Most topics will be released on Tuesday. Almost all geographic data will be published, as will the answers to questions about ancestry, religion, unpaid work, income, birthrates, family relationship makeups and residence details.
In October the answers to employment questions will be released, while in early to mid-2023 the ABS will release “complex topics” that required additional processing, including socioeconomic indexes and homelessness estimates.
Federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek says Australia has had a “fantastic” reception at the UN Ocean Conference in Portugal, which she addressed yesterday, heralding the announcement of five new “blue carbon” projects this week.
She was asked her opinion of the Blockade Australia climate crisis protests in New South Wales this week, and the widely criticised, very punitive anti-protest legislation that came into force in that state earlier this year.
Plibersek said she understood people felt strongly about climate crisis but that they needed to obey the law:
I support the right to protest. I think people need to protest within the bounds of the law … I have been part of organising a lot of rallies in my life and it was always pretty standard practice to negotiate with police on the route of the march …
You have a right to make your views known, you don’t have the right to break the law to do that.
She also spoke briefly about abortion rights in Australia, in the wake of those rights being rolled back in the United States, saying it was important for the government to be supporting “the full suite reproductive health [measures] for Australian women”, including sex education, contraception, and safe, legal abortion.
2021 census: first wave of data released today
Caitlin Cassidy
Cast your mind back to last August and you probably remember filling out the census, alongside millions of other Australians.
The first and biggest release of this year’s census is out today. It’s the first time since 2016 that Australians will have up-to-date data on where we live, who we are and what we do. It’s a mammoth task to wade through, and takes months to collate.
The 2021 census was completed during the Covid-19 pandemic, when many Australians were in lockdown and working from home and overseas migration had largely halted.
Questions were asked about two new topics – long-term health conditions and service in the Australian defence force.
It’s also the first time “non-binary”was offered as an option to report a person’s gender.
The question directly feeds into the official estimates of Australia’s population, making it one of the questionnaire’s most important questions.
While it should provide a more accurate snapshot of Australia’s LGBTQ+ community than in the past, when “other” was the only option apart from male or female, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has been criticised for neglecting to provide additional categories for people who are transgender or intersex.
An official count won’t be published in the first release. An ABS spokesperson said in a statement:
Later this year, the ABS will be doing more analysis on non-binary sex responses and … working in consultation with key stakeholders in the LGBTQ+ community to understand the complexities, data quality and usefulness of the data.
At this time, the ABS will be publishing our findings and looking ahead to the next Census.
Most topics will be released on Tuesday. Almost all geographic data will be published, as will the answers to questions about ancestry, religion, unpaid work, income, birthrates, family relationship makeups and residence details.
In October the answers to employment questions will be released, while in early to mid-2023 the ABS will release “complex topics” that required additional processing, including socioeconomic indexes and homelessness estimates.
Good morning
Good morning, folks, welcome to this chilly Tuesday.
Prime minister Anthony Albanese is in Madrid, Spain, for the Nato summit which will focus on the Russian war on Ukraine and its relationship with China.
Albanese confirmed on landing that he had also spoken with the Solomon Islands prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare, and had a “very constructive” conversation. We’ll hear more about both of those things over the course of the day.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released the first tranche of data from the 2021 census. It covers topics such as housing, languages spoken, Indigenous health and education, employment, religion and paid and unpaid work. We’ve got stacks of analysis on that to bring you this morning.
Industrial action will sweep New South Wales this week beginning with the Rail, Tram and Bus Union who are kicking off today with a “go-slow”, which means train drivers will limit their speeds to 60km/h or under, likely reducing services up to 50% in peak times. It’s the first of four days of rolling action against what they say are unsafe trains.
Nurses and midwives will also take action this week, with a planned walk-off for between one and 24 hours on Tuesday and a mass meeting held in Sydney’s CBD from 2pm. It will be the second time they have gone on strike in recent months.
We’ve got heaps more to bring you over the day. If you see something newsworthy or interesting over the day, send me an email at [email protected] or ping me on Twitter @gingerandhoney.
Ready? Let’s get stuck in.
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