Throughout the lead-up to tonight’s census, Atheists and Christians have urged the public to ensure they take care to accurately answer Q19, “What is your religion?”, but for very different reasons.
The Australian Christian Lobby says it’s vital Australians of Christian heritage ensure their beliefs are accurately recorded, even if they do not attend church on a regular basis.
The Australian Christian Lobby says that “while the census data is rightly used to assist the government to plan for services and infrastructure, other groups, including some atheists, are seeking to push their agendas by encouraging people to leave the form blank.
The Atheist Foundation of Australia (AFA) is urging Australians who no longer attend church to answer Q19 with ‘no religion’ and has taken to the streets to get their message across with a series of billboards throughout Sydney.
When launching the campaign in March, AFA President David Nichols said it was time the Australian community questioned whether they hold religious beliefs or not.
“How they answer this question in the Census will influence decisions by Australian governments. Often the transfer of taxpayer money to religious organisations is justified on the basis of the Census results, as are special concessions and exemptions including the right to discriminate against some groups.
However, the Australian Christian Lobby says the question is as much about heritage as it is church attendance.
“Not every person who holds judeo-Christian values attends a church, but if enough of them leave this section blank, some will use this to minimize the importance of basic Christian values in this country.
“We need to prove the size of the constituency who hold these values.”
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, tonight’s census is the country’s 16th in it’s 110 years of nationhood.
Surveys have been distributed to the nation’s 9.8 million households, the results of which will determine how $45 billion worth of GST revenue is distributed and will influence thousands of government and community decisions over the next 5 years.
