In a packed community room in Melbourne, a panel of experts had a direct message for multicultural Australia: the upcoming 2026 Census is not just a boring form you have to fill out. It is a chance to be seen, to be counted, and to shape the country you live in.
For the first time, Australians will be able to list up to four ancestries instead of just two. New questions on gender and sexual orientation will include write-in boxes. And the data collected will decide everything from where your bus stop is located to whether your local library stocks books in your language.
This was the message from a multicultural community panel yesterday, where speakers and audience members dug into the details of the census, shared personal stories, and asked the tough questions about privacy, AI, and penalties.
Jenny Telford, the General Manager of Census and Population at the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), told the room that the census is far more than just a population count.
“It asks questions on things like health, education, work, cultural background and living circumstances, helping us understand how our population is changing and what communities need now and into the future,” she said.
The decision to allow people to list up to four ancestries was a big moment in the discussion.
“For many Australians, identity is layered and complex, and this change better reflects that reality,” Telford said.
Dr Judy Tang, Commissioner of the Victorian Multicultural Commission, opened the panel by sharing her own family story to show why this matters so much.
“My parents are Vietnamese born, but ancestry-wise Chinese,” she said. “Before 1986, they didn’t capture that diversity.”
She explained that the census gives communities hard numbers to back up their stories.
“The census allows us to amplify that with data to advocate for improved housing and employment services,” she said.
Dr Tang also welcomed the new questions on gender and sexual orientation for people aged 16 and over, which will include write-in options so people can describe themselves in their own words.
“One of the things I’m particularly interested in is the intersection of multicultural and LGBTQIA+, which is often an invisible community,” she said.
One of the strongest messages from the panel was that the census touches almost every part of daily life, often in ways people do not realise. Dr Tang pointed to a simple but powerful example. “Whether you have a bus stop that’s close enough to you… that data comes from the census,” she said.
She explained that local councils use census data to decide if a library needs a Vietnamese or Arabic section, or how to support a growing faith community in a regional area.
Melodie Davies, from fka Children’s Services, gave another practical example. Her organisation uses census data to help kindergartens get ready for the children who will walk through their doors.
“We are trying to get kinders ready for families, rather than asking families to be ready for kinder,” she said.
She pointed out that enrolment forms are often hard to fill out even for English speakers, let alone a family from a non-English background. Census data helps services understand who is coming and how to prepare.
The panel also faced some tough questions on privacy and the use of artificial intelligence. Telford said the ABS will use two types of AI. The first is an online chatbot to answer basic questions, but she stressed it is “well contained” and will not learn from public conversations. The second uses machine learning to help process the millions of written answers people give for questions like occupation and industry.
She gave a firm reassurance on data security. “When we receive census forms, the names and addresses get separated out from the rest of the data very early on. At the end of the census, we will destroy that name and address data.”
Another audience member asked about penalties for not completing the census. Telford confirmed that participation is compulsory for almost everyone, except foreign diplomats and people on a short holiday.
“Yes, most people know that participating in the census in Australia is compulsory,” she said. But she added quickly: “It is something we do as an absolute last resort. Our goal is to help people willingly fill in the census.”
She noted that Australia has an incredible participation rate, with over 95 per cent of people willingly taking part last time.
To a question from The Indian Sun on older migrants struggling with technology, Telford said every household gets a letter with instructions, and people can ask for a paper form or go to in-person help centres.
Another audience member asked about counting people in hospitals, aged care homes, or those with dementia. “We have strategies designed to really help all of those vulnerable people be counted,” Telford said, acknowledging that for people with dementia, the ABS relies on the help of family, carers, and staff.
When asked what excites her most about the 2026 data release, Telford said it is impossible to know yet. But she pointed to a stunning fact from the last census.
“Over 50 percent of people who were counted in the 2021 census were either born overseas or had at least one parent born overseas. That was an incredible moment where we truly got a statistical picture of our diversity.”
The first Australian census was in 1911. The 2026 census will be only the 19th. “It is incredible to see how much as a nation we have changed since that very first census,” Telford said.
For the community leaders, advocates, and ordinary residents in that Melbourne room, the message was clear. The census is not just a government exercise. It is a way to prove you are here, to tell your story, and to help build services that actually work for you.
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