Briefs specific to Labor's commitment to expand data collection, with an emphasis on expanding ethnicity data and associated health metrics

Written by Claude Haiku 5.5 from the extracted text on 20 Oct 2026. It can miss or misread redacted and scanned pages. Check the source before relying on it.

The release contains a single ABS brief (MB23-000004, dated May 2023) to the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, marked for information. It covers ABS engagement with the Department of Home Affairs on the "Government that Works for Multicultural Australia" initiative and the review of cultural diversity standards and classifications ahead of the 2026 Census topic consultation. The brief notes the ABS is triaging submissions, including one from the ANU's Counting for Change project, and has encouraged stakeholders to make joint submissions. It lists the Census's existing cultural diversity measures, such as country of birth, language, religion, ancestry and year of arrival, which stem from the 1986 Borrie Review. It flags that new topics must be prioritised against Census form size and that complex standards may not be ready in time. It also corrects the ANU's claim that the Census could not inform COVID-19 vaccination responses, citing MADIP linkage with the Australian Immunisation Register. An appendix maps the cultural diversity standards and classifications.