EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1989 NO.71
ISSUED BY AUTHORITY OF THE TREASURER
Census and Statistics Act 1905
Census Regulations
Subsection 8(1) of the Census and Statistics Act 1905 (the Act) provides that:
“The Census shall be taken in the year 1981 and in every fifth year thereafter...”
Section 27 of 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...”
Section 2 of the Act provides that:
“This Act, other than Part III, extends to such external Territories as are prescribed.”
Subsection 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 in 1991 and accordingly it is proposed to prescribe the external Territories to be included in the census and the matters in relation to which statistical information will be collected.
The content and nature of the census affects accommodation and equipment needed for data processing and the proposed Regulations are now necessary to allow acquisition of these facilities to commence.
Details of the proposed regulations are:
Regulation 1 provides a citation for the Regulations.
Regulation 2 defines certain terms for the Regulations.
Regulation 3 describes for the purpose of section 2 of the Act the external Territories to be included in the census. In the
1986 Census, the external Territories of Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands were included and the same Territories are proposed to be included in the 1991 Census. Norfolk Island, the only other external Territory with a permanent population, is not proposed to be included in the Australian census. Arrangements for a census of that Territory would be made under the authority of the Norfolk Island Census and Statistics Ordinance 1961.
Regulation 4 describes for the purpose of Section 8 of the Act the matters on which statistical information is proposed to be collected in the census. Final wording of questions and definitions and the sequencing of questions will be decided once testing of questions and procedures for the census has been completed preparatory to finalising the census form. However, in recognition of the need for the public to be fully informed as possible on the census, details of the proposed topics and associated questions to be included in census forms will be made available in an Australian Bureau of Statistics information paper entitled “1991 Census of Population and Housing: Contents and Procedures” (Catalogue No. 2613.0) to be tabled in Parliament at the same time as the Regulations.
The topics proposed to be included in the 1991 Census are the same as for the 1986 Census except for the deletion of the following topics not considered sufficiently justified on a cost-benefit basis for inclusion in the 1991 Census:
• year first married (duration of marriage),
• whether married more than once,
• issue (number of children ever born),
• ethnic origin and
• reason dwelling unoccupied.
Regulation 5 repeals existing Statutory Rules relating to censuses.