religion and the state down under

["Alan G. Isaac" <aisaac@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Apologies to those who find this frivolous.
Comments from Oz welcomed.

The relevant links:
http://www.theage.com.au/frontpage/2001/04/19/FFX2AMAEPLC.html
http://www.miredespa.com/wmaton/Other/Legal/Constitutions/Australia/English/Australia-cons.html

Alan Isaac




BANNING THE FORCE
By SIMON JOHANSON and XAVIER LA CANNAAGE .

AGE ONLINE.
Thursday 19 April 2001, 08:05 AM.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has issued a
further warning to Star Wars fans intent on
marking "Jedi" as their religion in the upcoming
census.

The second warning was prompted following concerns
about an e-mail circulating widely in Australia
which urges readers to identify their religion as
"Jedi" in a national census to be held on August 7.

"If there are enough people in the country, about
10,000, who put down the same religion, it becomes
a fully recognised and legal religion," the e-mail
says. "It is for this reason that it has been
suggested that anyone who does not have a dominant
religion put down 'Jedi' as their religion.

Yes, this is a Sci-Fi thing, but it will also
f... with the government," the e-mail went on. When
Age Online first raised the issue two weeks ago
with the ABS, it prompted a warning that anyone
incorrectly filling out the census form  faced
stiff fines of $1000.

But the ABS sent out a reminder yesterday of what
constitutes a religion, reiterating penalties
applied to those giving false information.

There are no strict numerical criteria for a
religion, but it must show an underlying belief
system or philosophy, underpinned by an
organisational structure, the ABS said. The census
also recognises non-theistic belief systems such
as humanism and rationalism.

Although the ABS statement did not specifically
mention the Jedi campaign, director of census
field operations, Paul Williams, said the
clarification was prompted by the content of the
e-mails.

Simply noting Jedi Knights - the fictional
characters popularised in the Star Wars movies -
in the census's religion box, will not formalise
it as a religious belief, Mr Williams said.

The e-mail's claims only 10,000 people need put
"Jedi" on the form to make it a recognised
religion were wrong, he said.

Religious information given on the census was
important for planning education, aged care and
hospital services for the community.

"We are not without a sense of humour," Mr
Williams said. "In the end we appreciate this
joke, but we would like to point out how important
the census is.

"The census is three or four months off but we
expect a very high level of cooperation from the
Australian public, as we always have had," he
said.

Information given to census collectors is
confidential, but officials can track false
replies to households before personal details are
discarded once the statistics are processed.

"We treat any issues to do with prosecution on a
case-by-case basis," Mr Williams said. Australia
had one of the highest rates of completion of
census data and the ABS was confident that trend
would continue, he said.

When asked if the e-mail campaign could taint the
census, he said: "I don't believe it will. I think
this is just a few people having a bit of fun.