Documents relating to correspondence between the ABS and representatives of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, or any other Catholic Church representative, during the period of March-May 2024

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The release comprises email correspondence between the ABS 2026 Census Content Development team and representatives of religious organisations, March to May 2024, concerning the proposed religious affiliation question for the 2026 Census. In March 2024 the ABS proposed testing a new format with a tick-box question listing religion examples, including "Roman Catholic", ahead of a large-scale Census test. After feedback from the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) and its National Centre for Pastoral Research, the ABS changed the example to "Catholic" and confirmed that final question design would not be decided until after the test. The ACBC letter objected to the change on several grounds: disengaging religion from culture and identity, loss of time-series comparability with 2021, a write-in format and a "No religion" bias placed first, impacts on ethnic minority reporting, and confusion over "Roman Catholic". The correspondence also includes a May 2024 ABS update on the test, a response from the Association of Ministerial Public Juridic Persons, and the ABS offer of meetings.