Volunteering Tasmania has voiced its concern about data collected in the 2016 census.
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A letter signed by chief executive Adrienne Picone was submitted to the census Senate inquiry last month.
"VT is concerned about the impact of the 2016 census on the data captured around volunteering," the letter said.
"As a result of significant funding reductions in the Australian Bureau of Statistics, data collected on volunteering has already been diminished.”
The letter said the removal of the National Centre for Culture and Recreation Statistics compounded volunteering data issues. The census site crashed during census night on August 9.
An ABS spokesman said the bureau provided a “comprehensive submission” to assist with the inquiry.
He said about 95 per cent of households had completed the census, whilst form processing continues.
“The ABS expects to discuss its submission with the Senate committee at a later stage, so cannot currently provide further detail or pre-empt the findings of the inquiry,” he said.
Ms Picone said there would be an ongoing debate about “what went wrong” in the census, and meanwhile VT hoped to see “greater investment” in the ABS.
“Without it we lose one of the few consistent, reliable sources of data we have on volunteering trends and activities,” she said.
The Senate referred the inquiry into the 2016 census to the Senate Economics References Committee on August 31, and the committee will report by November 24.