1. There is a long-standing demand for objective information about the extent to which people living in Australia may be disadvantaged or suffer discrimination as a result of their linguistic or cultural background. As a result, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has received a growing number of enquiries from service providers, data collection agencies, government agencies, community groups, academics and private sector organisations relating to both language data and to methodologies for collecting and classifying language information.
2. To meet these growing needs, the ABS has incorporated language questions into a range of social statistical collections and has developed standards for a number of language variables for use both within and outside the organisation.
3. It should be noted that although the language variable addressed in this standard is entitled First Language Spoken, it includes sign languages. The name of the variable is First Language Spoken as it is designed to measure the language a person first spoke rather than the language they could first read or write.
4. Persons whose first language is not English have been identified by programme providers as a population group that is likely to experience disadvantage when seeking to obtain equal access to government and community programmes and services in Australia. Data relating to First Language Spoken may thus provide a surrogate indicator of disadvantage potentially associated with a lack of English competence or with other factors associated with cultural background.
5. The variable First Language Spoken has been endorsed by the Standing Committee on Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (SCIMA) as one of the standard set of indicators for use in measuring cultural and linguistic diversity. It is to be progressively implemented in administrative and service settings to provide data to determine, measure and monitor service needs (access and equity requirements), and to provide a measure of cultural diversity in its broader sense.
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