http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/01/atheists-annoyed-by-prankster...
"Answering the religion question thoughtfully and honestly matters because it benefits all Australians when decisions on how to spend taxpayer dollars are made on sound data that accurately reflects modern-day Australia."
Unquote.
The point is that it harms the interests of non-believers when Commonwealth citizens tick Jedi, Pasterfarian, etc on the official National Census forms because they count as religions. Therefore ticking them indicates religious affiliation. These Censuses are conducted in most member states about every ten years and the question on religion now varies from one to another. Humanism, atheism, agnostic, etc if specified are mostly counted collectively under a heading like 'non-belief' or perhaps 'secular', but not necessarily.
In almost all member states the government uses the figures to support policy decisions and initiatives so it is important to read the question before answering. On most forms it is safest to tick 'NO RELIGION', even though that might cause the support for humanist and atheist groups to be under-reported.
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