Hunter Valley population is booming: Census 2016

BY JESSICA ROUSE

Data from last year's Census has been released and shows that the Hunter's population, excluding Newcastle, is booming.

The Hunter Valley is home to just over 263,000 people and nearly 360,000 people in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie and across both regions, there are more women than men.

We found out just who the average Australian is too - a 38 year old woman who speaks English, is married and lives in a captital city. Our ancestry is predominately Australian with 33 per cent of our residents identifying as Aussie, closely followed by British.

Maitland was identified as a high growth area being the fastest growing outside of the Sydney metropolitan area.

Director of Data Processing Tracey Chester says not only are we growing, but we have the biggest ageing population as well.

"The 2016 Census also found that the population of the Hunter region is older when compared with NSW and Australia so the median age in the Hunter region is 39 years whereas for NSW it was 38 years."

In terms of religion, Tracey says we don't appear to be losing it here in the Hunter compared to the rest of the nation, with a great number of residents following Christian beliefs.

"While nationally around half our population said that they followed a Christian religion, in your area it's actually up at 71 per cent. You're also less likely to report no religion than nationally so 24 per cent of you reported that you didn't have a religion compared with 30 per cent nationally."

Looking at income in the Hunter the median weekly income is around $1280 dollars, but in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie it's around $1330 dollars.

For a full roundup of how we look in the 2016 Census head to  http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/D3310114.nsf/Home/Census

Greens MP: Special Commission lacks direction

Greens MP, David Shoebridge has urged the government not to delay in releasing the report from the commission into child sex abuse in the Hunter.

Mr Shoebridge says the public needs to review the effectiveness of the commission themselves.

“People in the Hunter in particular have been given an expectation of what this report will deal with and assess this institutional failure to deal with child abuse in the Hunter,” Mr Shoebridge said.

The report form the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into child sexual abuse in the Hunter is expected to be handed down this week.

The inquiry was supposed to look into alleged cover-ups by the police and Catholic Church however, Mr Shoebridge claims the commission focused too much on whistle-blower Peter Fox.

“Peter Fox… has been in the witness box for some 14 days that’s close to institutional abuse of the whistle-blower and it doesn’t seem like anything like the same attention has been applied to the church and the police.”

Mr Shoebidge said the inquiry has become a “side show” and had lost direction.

“Have the inquiry run in a more balanced consideration of, yes, the allegations and the veracity of Peter Fox but also the obvious failings of the church and polices seeming inability to deal with that,” Mr Shoebridge said.

Vote to remove "Jesus" from prayer

Port Stephen council might remove references to "Jesus" from a start of meeting prayer.

The prayer will still reference "God", but the phrase "in Jesus' name" might be in breach of the 1975 Racial Discrimination Act.

The term "Jesus" could be considered specific to the Christian faith whilst "God" was more inclusive of other religions

The move to remove the phrase would be a back flip on the decision to add it less than twelve months ago.

Port Stephen's Mayor, Bruce MacKenzie, says that it's all "a storm in a tea cup".



"I'm a proud Australian and I don't have a problem with it," Mr MacKenzie said, "but council will decide tomorrow night whether they drop it or not".

Mr MacKenzie acknowledged that the term may be in beech of the  discrimination act but says that a lot of people still believe in Jesus.

"I'm not a practising Christian, I don't go to church... but I don't have a problem with people acknowledging Jesus either," said Mr Mackenzie.

Council will vote on the issue tomorrow evening.