It's nearly time for the next snapshot into the state of the country , with the 2021 Australian Bureau of Statistics census taking place on the night of Tuesday, August 10.
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The last census took place in 2016 - and the data collected this year is set to reflect the level of change across the community.
If you've already received your census information in the mail it can be completed early if you already know who will be on your house that night. As of Wednesday, August 4, more than one million households had submitted their forms online.
Census executive director Andrew Henderson said they were delighted with the response received so far.
"We expect the number of forms submitted daily to continue to grow between now and census night," he said. "Experience with earlier censuses, which accords with international experience, is that the tally of forms received will continue to grow steadily in the several weeks following census night. The ABS expects this pattern to be repeated for this census."
Properties across Northern Tasmania will be in the process of receiving either a letter in the mail with online instructions, or a paper form.
"If you are yet to receive your census instructions, or would like to complete a separate census form to the rest of your household, you can get a census number or request a paper form on the census website," Mr Henderson said.
"We want to make sure everyone is included in the census, so we have provided a range of help and support options to assist people in completing the form, including on the census website and over the phone.
"We also have braille forms, audio instructions, video guides with closed captions, and translation services available."
Provisions are in place for people who may have migrated to Tasmania, and for whom English is not their first language.
Multicultural Council of Tasmania chief executive Duncan Spender said the council was heavily consulted by the ABS over the last year in the leadup to the census.
"We had good engagement with the ABS since last year," he said.
"They obviously planned for the census and they're cognisant of the need to ensure that all parts of the community are able to fill it in. They have hired people to have community connections and spread the word about the census - earlier in the year we promoted their job rounds to provide temporary work around the census where they sought people with diverse cultural backgrounds to connect with lots of different communities.
"That work has been going on for some months ... some of our members have taken up the opportunity for that temporary work.
"That's helped to explain what's involved."
Mr Spender said feedback received was that the assistance made the process less daunting.
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The data received helping to guide MCOT's programs and policies - although it provides some limitations according to Mr Spender, including the fact it will not be released until 2022 after it is collated and analysed.
"Good data is always useful," he said.
"We would have preferred the ABS ask more questions about languages spoken at home, and that would have been more useful for future policy development, but nonetheless there are questions around languages spoken and country of birth, and that information is useful - we'd probably like it more frequently that we can get. We know from quarterly and annual migration flow data that since 2016 the pace of migration to Tasmania from people born overseas has most likely been at least in line with national averages or if anything a bit higher, so we would expect that the results of this census is that the proportion of the Tasmanian population born overseas is markedly higher than in 2016."
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Bass Liberal MHR Bridget Archer said her office had a number of constituents call through in the past week seeking assistance with the census, and she encouraged people to call her office or the census hotline on 1800 512 441.
Face to face help from ABS staff in other languages is available at the below locations and times.
Woolworths - Mowbray
- Monday, 09 August - 9am to 12.30pm (Nepali)
- Wednesday, 11 August - 9am to 12.30pm (Nepali)
Launceston Library
- Saturday, 07 August - 9.30am to 1.00pm (Mandarin, Vietnamese, Shanghainese, Hokkien, Taiwanese)
- Tuesday, 10 August - 1pm to 6pm (Vietnamese, Tigrinya)
- Wednesday, 11 August - 1.30PM to 6pm (Mandarin, Shanghainese, Hokkien, Taiwanese, Tigrinya)
Ravenswood Library
- Monday, 09 August - 2pm to 4pm (Mandarin)
- Tuesday, 10 August - 10.30am to 4pm (Hindi, Gujarati)
- Monday, 09 August - 2pm to 4pm (Mandarin)
- Tuesday, 10 August - 10.30am to 4pm (Hindi, Gujarati)
- Monday, 09 August - 2pm to 4pm (Mandarin)
- Tuesday, 10 August - 10.30am to 4pm (Hindi, Gujarati)
- Monday, 09 August - 2pm to 4pm (Mandarin)
- Tuesday, 10 August - 10:30am to 4pm (Hindi, Gujarati)
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