2 weeks Ago By Andrew Brown and Dominic Giannini
LGBTQI people are welcoming plans to count them in the next census after the government initially scrapped plans to ask a question on sexuality. or signup to continue reading But advocates say the entire queer community needs to be included, with questions on trans and gender-diverse people. The government shouldn't "pick and choose" who was counted, Equality Australia CEO Anna Brown said.
"We welcome the inclusion of a sexual orientation question but the national snapshot of our nation must include all of us," Ms Brown said. Trans Justice Project director Jackie Turner said the community needed the data to determine how many people were included, where people were and "what our health and service needs actually are". Prime Minister Anthony Albanese used annual LGBTQI awareness day Wear It Purple to announce a full 360 in Labor's position - with the decision to tally the queer community in the 2026 census after pulling the plug on its initial pledge to do so.
Labor frontbenchers had said the government scrapped its intention to add the question to avoid a "divisive" and "nasty" fight. The Australian Bureau of Statistics will run a trial on "one question about sexuality" and people will have the option not to answer it, Mr Albanese said. He denied the government had been forced to back down.
"This is the first time I've been asked about it," he told ABC radio on Friday after being out of the country for a Pacific forum , with his ministers defending the decision to scrap the question throughout the week. The Australian Bureau of Statistics is preparing to test a draft question that is "sensitive and that gets the information that is required", Mr Albanese said. Changing the poll was "modernising, reflecting some of the changed values which are there by asking a question", he said.
"I think that people would think that was a pretty common sense outcome," he said. "In 2024 or 2026, the world has changed ..
. people's sexuality wasn't as open or as accepted as it is today." The census wasn't "the be all and end all" of data collection, Mr Albanese added.
"We now have data collection in a range of ways, including on our phones and through Facebook and through the range of vehicles available," he said. Speaking just ahead of the prime minister's announcement, Liberal MP Bridget Archer said it was frustrating Labor had created controversy where there hadn't been one. "I don't think anybody was thinking about it, talking about it, concerned about it, until the government told them they should be concerned in some way by deciding not to go ahead with it," she said.
ACT Labor Chief Minister Andrew Barr had also expressed disappointment. Mr Barr, a gay man, said "there has rightly been a strong focus on the value of data collection to inform evidence-based policies and service delivery". Almost 70 organisations that support LGBTQI communities signed a statement calling for federal Labor to reverse its decision.
Nationals deputy Perin Davey and party colleagues Ross Cadell and Keith Pitt all told AAP they weren't fazed about whether it was in the survey. Ex-Liberal senator turned independent Gerard Rennick said while he didn't care because the question wasn't relevant "as it's personal", he was curious to know the percentages. Labor backbenchers Josh Burns, Peter Khalil, Alicia Payne and assistant health minister Ged Kearney had broken ranks with their leadership and argued the government's decision should be reversed.
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