Review of 2021 Census Topics

The Department of Health is seeking an additional question relating to the Nation/ Clan / Mob identification of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander respondents in order to improve the accuracy of counting of the Indigenous population.

The disadvantage faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is well understood and poses an ongoing policy challenge for Governments at all levels. Closing the Gap, a key policy goal of Government, is of national importance and attracts bipartisan support. Improving the available data on this population, including at the nation, clan or mob levels as well as geographical levels is critical to ensuring that policy development is informed by the best available information.

This is also the case in delivering services to marginalised communities, which due to geography, historical disadvantage, or intergenerational trauma must be approached with care and sensitivity.

Understanding the numbers and geography of these populations is critical in ensuring that the policy approaches that are adopted are sufficiently targeted to be both effective and efficient. Only by doing this will progress be made towards Closing the Gap.

There is growing evidence that cultural safety is crucial to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s engagement with health care in Australia, as noted in the Cultural Respect Framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health 2016-2026. Improving our understanding of the diversity of nation/clan/mob identification, including by small area geography, would greatly assist in responding to the challenge of making the health system culturally safe for Indigenous Australians.

This information would also assist Australian Government in understanding diversity and numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians for policy and planning proposed.

This additional question is important to improve the accuracy of measuring the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population, both as a whole group but also with regard to subgroups. There was an estimated undercount of 17.5 per cent of this population in the 2016 Census, which has the potential to reduce funding to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander focused programs, which are targeting the most disadvantaged people in Australia.

Because Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations are more concentrated in regional and remote areas than the general Australian population, this question will be very useful in the accurate measurement of populations living in small geographic areas.

Many Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander groups belong to nations, clans or mobs, with distinct languages and identities. It is of critical importance that the demography of these groups is properly understood so that they can be supported. An understanding of the characteristics of these groups will be a powerful policy tool which will assist in devising policy approaches that will provide tailored support to improve their lives.

It would be possible to express the question(s) about the Nation/ Clan / Mob identification of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander identification in a way that is easy for the household respondents to answer after some appropriate data development effort to ensure this.
Use of the Edward Tilton language map should be considered to support this data collection. The Indigenous Health Division can provide more information if required.

This is a topic that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander respondents will know and be able to answer readily. It should be noted that due to the historical treatment of some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by Government there might be some reluctance to answer. This could be overcome with proper preparation for collectors and through written or advertising materials.

This question would likely be relatively simple to collect, and would be information that the respondents will readily know. However, because of the large number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups, it would likely require a significant list of possible responses and may pose challenges for processing or coding.

With increasing numbers of households completing their Census online, questions such as this have become feasible for the first time.

There is a continuing need for data on this topic. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are among the most disadvantaged populations in Australia. It is certain that over the long term significant resources must be dedicated to improving their lives and giving access to the kind of opportunities that other Australians take for granted.

To do this there must be an accurate count of the population at a variety of levels so that the right assistance can be delivered to the right people in the right place. This is a persistent policy challenge and therefore time series information is critical to delivering the proper quantum of assistance over time. This is particularly important because of the variable populations that make up the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander grouping, including those that are travelling or absent from their normal geographical homes on Census night.

This data is not reliably collected elsewhere, and cannot be reproduced or synthesised through the use of other datasets. While there may be organisations that collect some of this data, it is not available in a systematic, useable form. It is particularly important that this information be collected by a credible data custodian with clear accountabilities so that respondents can be reassured that it will not be misused, given previous experiences that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people may have had with Government entities.