EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1985 NO. 18
ISSUED BY AUTHORITY OF THE TREASURER
Census and Statistics Act 1905 - Census Regulations
Section 27 of the Census and Statistics Act 1905 (the Act) provides that:
“The Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with this Act, prescribing all matters and things which, by this Act, are required or permitted to be prescribed, or which are necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to this Act…”
Sub-section 8(3) of the Act provides that:
“For the purposes of the taking of the Census, the Statistician shall collect statistical information in relation to the matters prescribed for the purposes of this section.”
A census is to be conducted on 30 June 1986 and accordingly it is proposed to prescribe the matters in relation to which statistical information will be collected. The proposed Regulations are now necessary in order to allow sufficient time for the printing and distribution of household forms for the 1986 Census of Population and Housing. It is planned that printing start in April 1985.
The Australian Law Reform Commission and the Senate Standing Committee on Regulations and Ordinances of 1975 have recommended that the precise wording of census questions should be included in regulations. Because of the nature of censuses and the need for extensive testing of proposed questions, no guarantee can be given that the precise wording will be finalised at the time regulations need to be tabled in Parliament. Accordingly, it is proposed that Census Regulations will continue to describe the matters on which statistical information will be collected in the census. However, in recognition of the need for the public to be as fully informed on the census as possible, the proposed questions to be included in census forms are shown below along with the matters to be prescribed.
The Census and Statistics Amendment Act (No. 2) 1981, proclaimed on 1 March 1983, removed the provision of the Census and Statistics Act 1905 requiring that certain topics be included in the census and others be prescribed by regulation. It is now necessary to prescribe all topics by regulation.
The topics to be included in the 1986 Census are broadly similar to the topics included in the 1981 Census, with some notable differences. For the first time, it is proposed to include
questions on each person’s ancestry and language other than English spoken at home. These questions will provide data for planning and evaluating services to migrants and ethnic communities within Australia. It is proposed to include a question on usual residents temporarily absent on census night to allow family members temporarily absent to be included in the coding of families. The question on relationships within a household will be altered so that it will be possible to produce statistics on de facto living arrangements and children in blended families. An additional question is proposed for persons attending an educational institution to collect data on the type of institution being attended. These data will greatly assist education planners. It is proposed to no longer ask a question on material of outer walls of the dwelling. Such a question was included in previous censuses but is no longer considered to be a satisfactory indicator of housing conditions.
Details of the proposed regulations are shown below:
Regulation 1 provides a citation for the Regulations.
Regulation 2 provides the interpretation for the Regulations.
Regulation 3 describes for the purpose of Section 8 of the Census and Statistics Act 1905 the matters to be prescribed.
(a) It is proposed that the following matters be prescribed in relation to persons:
(i) | identity |
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| Name | Surname and Christian or given name of each person who spent the night of 30 June 1986 in this household (not entered in the computer record) |
| Sex | Sex of each person (male/female) |
(ii) | age |
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| Age | Age of each person (in years and months) |
(iii) | present and past marital status | |
| Marital status | What is each person’s present marital status? (never married, now married, separated but not divorced, divorced, widowed) |
| Year first married | In what year was the person first married? |
| Whether married more than once | Has the person married more than once? |
(iv) | in the case of a woman of not less than 15 years of age - children born of the woman | |
| Number of children | For each female aged 15 years or more, how many babies has she ever had? |
(v) | in the case of a person who is a member of a household or spends the night of Census day as a visitor with members of a household - relationship to the other members, or members, as the case may be, of the household | |
| Relationship | What is each person’s relationship to the persons listed first or second on the form? |
| Usual residents temporarily absent | List any persons who usually live here who were not present on the night of 30 June 1986 and give name, age, sex, relationship to person 1, whether studying full-time, and marital status, as for persons present in the dwelling on Census night |
(vi) | in the case of a person who spends the night of the Census day on a train or in a dwelling other than a private dwelling - qualification for presence on the train or at the dwelling | |
| Relationship | State whether hotel guest, patient, prisoner, employee etc. |
(vii) | past and present residence | |
| Internal migration | Where does each person usually live? (full address or ‘overseas’ if not an Australian resident). Where was each person’s usual residence both one and five years ago, ie 30 June 1985 and 30 June 1981? (full address or ‘overseas’ if not then an Australian resident). (Identifiable individual address not entered in the computer record) |
(viii) | birthplace |
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| Birthplace | Where was each person born? (Country) |
(ix) | birthplace of parents |
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| Birthplace of parents | What was the country of birth of each person’s father and mother? |
(x) | in the case of a person not born in Australia - first arrival in Australia | |
| Year of arrival | For each person born overseas in what year did the person first arrive in Australia? |
(xi) | citizenship |
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| Citizenship | Is the person an Australian citizen? |
(xii) | ethnic origin |
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| Ancestry | What is each person’s ancestry? |
| Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander origin | Is the person of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin? |
(xiii) | languages used as a medium of communication | |
| Language used at home | Does the person speak a language other than English at home? If yes, please print language spoken. |
| Proficiency in English | For persons who speak a language other than English at home, how well does the person speak English? |
(xiv) | religion |
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| Religion | What is each person’s religious denomination? (This question is optional) |
(xv) | educational history |
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| Attendance at an educational institution | Is the person attending a school or any other educational institution? If yes, indicate whether part-time or full-time and type of educational institution being attended |
| Qualifications | Has the person obtained a trade or other qualification since leaving school? The details of the highest qualification obtained are required, ie qualification name, name of institution, field of study and year obtained |
| Age left school | How old was each person when he or she left school? |
(xvi) | in the case of a person of not less than 15 years - | |
| (A) income |
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| Income | What is the gross income (including pensions and/or allowances) that each person usually receives each week from all sources? (Respondents to indicate the range in which their income falls) |
| (B) employment during week immediately preceding the Census day | |
| Labour force status | Last week, did the person have a full-time or part-time job of any kind? In the main job held last week, was the person • a wage or salary earner • conducting own business but not employing others |
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| • conducting own business and employing others • a helper not receiving wages or salary? |
| Occupation | In the main job held last week, what was the person’s occupation? What are the main tasks or duties that the person usually performs in that occupation? |
| Industry | For the main job held last week, what was the employer’s trading name and address of workplace? What kind of industry, business, or service is carried out by the employer at that address? (Address is required only for coding of industry and destination of journey to work. Names and addresses of employers are not entered in the computer record) |
| Hours worked | In the main job held last week, how many hours did the person work? |
(xvii) | in the case of a person other than an unemployed person - mode of transport to the workplace | |
| Mode of travel to work | How did the person get to work on a specified day? (ie train, bus, ferry or tram, car etc) |
(xviii) | in the case of an unemployed person or a person engaged in unremunerated employment - attempts to find employment, or other employment, as the case may be, during the four weeks immediately preceding the Census day | |
| Labour force status | Did the person actively look for work at any time during the last 4 weeks? |
(xix) | Ownership and use of motor vehicles | |
| Number of motor vehicles garaged | How many registered motor vehicles owned or used by members of this household were garaged or parked at or near this dwelling for the night of 30 June 1986? |
(b) In addition, it is also proposed that each of the following matters should be prescribed in relation to private dwellings: | ||
(i) | the structure |
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| Dwelling structure | The census collector is asked to indicate the type of structure which best describes the dwelling (ie a separate house, a semi-detached house, a row or terrace house, etc) |
(ii) | the rooms |
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| Number of rooms | How many rooms are there in this dwelling? (Respondents are asked to show how many of each type of room they have) |
(iii) | the right, title or interest of the occupier in relation to the dwelling or the furniture in the dwelling | |
(iv) | the rent payments |
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(v) | the mortgage or loan repayments | |
| Rent | Is this dwelling rented by you or any usual member of this household? • If yes, to whom is rent paid? (State Housing Commission, other government agencies, others) • What is the weekly rent? • Is the dwelling rented furnished or unfurnished? |
| Mortgage | Is this dwelling owned (or being bought) by you or any usual member of this household? • If being bought, what monthly payment (or average monthly payment) is being made on the loan(s) for this dwelling? |
(vi) | in the case of an unoccupied dwelling - the apparent reason why the dwelling is unoccupied | |
| Reason dwelling unoccupied | The census collector is asked to indicate why dwelling is unoccupied (ie for sale, to let, newly completed, etc) |
(c) In relation to a dwelling other than a private dwelling - classification of the dwelling by reference to its purpose.
Regulation 4 repeals existing Statutory Rules relating to censuses.