Multicultural groups welcome federal government's move to collect ethnicity data

The federal government has announced it will begin collecting ethnicity data as part of measuring diversity in Australia, a move long called for by experts and multicultural community groups. Key points: Comparable countries like the US, Canada and New Zealand collect data about ethnicity to measure diversity Experts say failure to understand the make up of multicultural Australia hindered COVID-19 responses The federal government aims to collect ethnicity data at the next census Country of birth and language spoken at home have historically been the main diversity indicators used by Australian government agencies. He said Australia's failure to collect data on ethnicity or race — unlike the US, Canada and New Zealand — was a "fundamental barrier to understanding the issues that face multicultural Australians". Race Commissioner wants more data on racism Australia's Racial Discrimination Commissioner, Chin Tan, also welcomed Mr Giles's announcement of the shift towards collecting more detailed data on diversity, calling it a "positive move". "While we applaud and will support initiatives toward multicultural data collection, we are also looking at data collection that will capture race and race issues in this country as well," Mr Tan said.