Post by Andre Oboler

The Australian Jewish News has reported on the push to get members of faith, including member of the Jewish community, to report their religion in the 2026 census. I have responded in this LinkedIn article to highlight why this decision should not be made likely, particularly at a time of heightened antisemitism in Australia. There are risks of census data being abused by governments to target people, as the Nazis did. Less far fetched in Australia is the risk of abuse by others to whom the ABS sells anonymised "unit record data" (i.e. data from individual census forms). This data can be linked back to individuals through a process known as "re-identification" a risk the ABS is aware of, and which has increase due to advances in AI, something the ABS is also aware of. Members of the Jewish community need to appreciate both the benefits and the risks before making their own decisions.