The Australian Bureau of Statistics is investigating a complaint by a Kambah couple that their census collector encouraged them to indicate they were Christian, otherwise they would end up with a Muslim prayer centre nearby.
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David Rollston said his wife had joked with the collector that at the 2006 census, some people had indicated their religion was Jedi.
"He [the collector] took the ball from there.
He had said if people were only nominally Christian or non-practising, they should indicate in the census they were Christian, otherwise the demographic could be swayed.
"My wife bristled at this a bit. He backed off a bit and said that is what we have been told to explain. It was not necessarily his point of view."
NSW and ACT Census director Mark Harding said that under no circumstances should a census collector encourage residents to fill out their form a certain way.
The bureau was apolitical and the matter was being investigated.
Since last Friday, 29,000 census collectors had been distributing ecensus envelopes and paper forms to every household in Australia for the census next Tuesday.