2026 Census Topic Consultation: Phase Two Collection Notice

Every Census, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) makes a recommendation to the Australian Government on the topics that could be included in the Census. From July to September 2023, the ABS is inviting members of the public, community groups and other organisations to make submissions on topics considered for inclusion, change or removal from the 2026 Census.  The ABS will use information from the consultation process to inform the selection of topics that will proceed to testing and to make a recommendation to government on the topics for the 2026 Census.

The ABS may also use sections of submissions to inform the 2031 Census topic review process or other ABS collections. This Collection Notice explains the collection and use of personal information as part of phase two consultation of the 2026 Census topic review process.

Your personal information is being collected by the ABS and ABS’s technology service provider for the consultation, Delib. If you also consent to receiving email updates from the ABS regarding the 2026 Census topic review process, your personal information will also be shared with Swift Digital, the ABS’s email subscription service provider.

The ABS Privacy Policy for Managing and Operating Our Business provides details about how we (the ABS) manage and protect your personal information. 

As part of making a submission, you will be providing your personal information to the ABS through our Consultation Hub. If we receive formal submissions via email or post the ABS will also enter these into the Consultation Hub. The Privacy Notice for the Consultation Hub explains how we use Delib and its technology (Citizen Space). We (the ABS) manage the website and Delib provides the technology behind this service and its operation. Delib’s Privacy Notice explains how Delib will collect, safeguard, and process your data on behalf of the ABS.

For phase two of the 2026 Census topic consultation, the ABS will collect and hold the following personal information that you provide: 

• Contact name (optional, you do not need to provide a name)
• Organisation (if applicable) (optional, you do not need to provide this)
• Email address
• Your opinions on topics being considered for inclusion, change or removal from the 2026 Census (all questions are optional)

The ABS will use your submission to inform recommendations to the Australian Government on topics that could be included in the Census. Where you have consented, the ABS will publish your submission, including any attachments, and your organisation name(s) on the Consultation Hub. This is to share your views with the public on topics being considered for inclusion, change or removal from the 2026 Census. Your name and email address will not be published. We reserve the right to edit (for example, remove defamatory material or, where appropriate, de-identify personal or sensitive information), publish or not publish the submission at our discretion.

We may also use your name and email address to contact you if we have follow-up questions in relation to your submission. If you consent to receiving email updates regarding the 2026 Census topic review process, we will also use the email address you provided to send these updates to you.

Sections of your submission may also be considered during the 2031 Census topic review process or to inform other ABS collections.

We comply with the Privacy Act 1988 and the Archives Act 1983 in the storage, use and destruction of your personal information collected.

When personal information is collected as part of the 2026 Census topic consultation, it is stored in secure data centres in Australia.

The hosting provider for Delib (AWS) meets all Australian Government privacy and data storage requirements. The ABS will analyse your submission in the Delib system. The duration that your submissions will be stored in the Delib system will depend on whether you have provided your consent to publish your submission.

• If you have provided your consent to publish your submission, it will remain in the Delib data stores until the 2031 Census topic review process is finalised (which is intended to be no later than 2030). At this point the published submissions will be removed from public view and your information will be deleted from Delib data stores.
• If you have not provided consent to publish your submission, or you revoke your consent to publish your submission, it will be deleted from Delib data stores once analysis of all submissions is complete for the 2026 Census topic review process. It is intended that this will be no later than early 2024.
• Draft submissions (e.g., those not submitted) will be deleted from Delib data stores no later than early 2024.

The ABS will extract a copy of submissions and draft submissions and store these in the secure ABS environment. The ABS Privacy Policy for Managing and Operating Our Business provides details about how we (the ABS) manage and protect your personal information stored in ABS systems. Your full submission, including name (if provided) and email address, will be stored in this environment no later than 2030. We will then remove your name and email address and store a de-identified version of your submission for record keeping purposes.

The ABS uses Swift Digital to manage its 2026 Census topic consultation process email updates. Swift Digital meets all the Australian Government privacy and data storage requirements. You can view how Swift Digital protects your personal information.

• If you have not consented to receive email updates from the ABS regarding the 2026 Census topic review process, your personal information will not be transferred to the Swift Digital data store.
• If you have consented to receive email updates from the ABS regarding the 2026 Census topic review process, we will store your name and email address in Swift Digital until we notify you that the 2026 Census topics have been finalised. It is intended that this will occur in late 2025, at which point we will delete your personal information from the Swift Digital data store.
• You can revoke your consent to receive email updates at any point in time. If you revoke consent, your personal information will be removed from the Swift Digital data store.

As the technology service provider, Delib will only access your personal information when requested to do so by the ABS, and only for the purposes of assisting with the administration of the site.

Where you have consented to email updates, your name and email address will be shared with Swift Digital, the ABS’s email subscription service provider, for the purpose of sending you 2026 Census topic consultation updates.

Except for Delib in their data processing role, and Swift Digital in their email subscription service role, the ABS will not:

• share information in a way that would identify you or your organisation(s) without your consent
• share information with private organisations, such as direct marketing companies
• share information with other government agencies for compliance or regulation activities.

If you have identified that you are providing a submission on behalf of an organisation, the ABS may share the information in your submission to an alternative contact within your organisation if there is a legitimate reason to do so. 

The ABS Privacy Policy for Managing and Operating Our Business provides more information about how we handle your personal information.

If you need to update the personal contact information you provided in your submission, you can contact ABS on 1300 135 070 or email census.content@abs.gov.au.

A submission cannot be edited in the Consultation Hub once it has been submitted. If the consultation is still open, you can provide a new submission. Please contact (census.content@abs.gov.au) to request removal of your original submission.

You can revoke your consent to publication of your submission by emailing census.content@abs.gov.au.  

You can revoke your consent to receive email updates by clicking the ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of the email update or emailing census.content@abs.gov.au.

The ABS Privacy Policy for Managing and Operating Our Business has information about how you can make a complaint if you feel we have not adequately protected your privacy. The Policy describes how we will respond to your complaint, and what you can do if you are not satisfied with our response.

You can contact the ABS Privacy Officer (details below) who will respond to enquiries or assist with complaints.

By email: privacy@abs.gov.au

By post: ABS Privacy Officer
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Locked Bag 10, Belconnen ACT 2617