Key Points
- The federal government has backflipped on including LGBTIQ+ Census questions after mounting pressure.
- Advocacy groups are still criticising the question proposed by the prime minister, saying it excludes parts of the community.
- The Opposition is divided on the issue with Liberal leader Peter Dutton calling the debate a "woke agenda".
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has backflipped on his government's position not to include Census questions about the LGBTIQ+ community, but advocates say the move falls short.
On Friday morning, the prime minister announced that a question on LGBTIQ+ identity would appear on the 2026 Census and was being tested by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
However, advocacy groups have urged the government to include all the proposed new test questions laid out in the ABS's December 2023 review of the Census.
Equality Australia CEO Anna Brown said the government shouldn't "pick and choose" which part of the community was counted as she advocated for the addition of questions on gender identity and variations of sex characteristics.
"We welcome the inclusion of a sexual orientation question but the national snapshot of our nation must include all of us, not just some of us," she said.
"Trans and gender diverse people and those with innate variations of sex characteristics deserve to be recognised as much as anyone else."
Greens leader Adam Bandt has backed the calls and criticised Albanese for taking cues from "the fear [and] hate of Peter Dutton", who labelled the questions a "woke agenda".
"The queer community shouldn’t have to fight so hard just to be counted. Under huge pressure, the PM has said they’d include a question on sexuality in the census – but not gender identity. What promises matter to this government?," Bandt said.
"I know so many queer people had hoped this Labor government would be in their corner... LGBTQIA+ people deserve so much better."
Albanese denied that this was backing down to pressure, despite both deputy prime minister Richard Marles and Treasurer Jim Chalmers confirming there would be no questions regarding sexuality and gender identity in the Census to avoid a "divisive debate" earlier in the week.
Two Labor MPs, Josh Burns and Peter Khalil, broke ranks on Thursday and urged the government to reconsider its position after Labor on Sunday walked back a pledge — contained in its 2023 national platform — to count the queer community in the 2026 Census.
It remains unclear whether the other questions about gender identity and innate variation of sex characteristics, also known as intersex, will also be considered.
"There were proposals for wide-ranging changes in the Census and that has been rejected because we think that that's not appropriate," Albanese told ABC's RN on Friday morning.
"It used to be ... people's sexuality wasn't as open or as accepted as it is today, and therefore the Census, in terms of modernising, reflecting some of the change values which are there by asking a question, I think that people would think that was pretty common sense outcome."
The addition of questions is subject to approval by the government and put to parliament ahead of the Census.
Greens MP Stephen Bates warned the government that unless it includes all the questions suggested by the review the party will force the issue in parliament, potentially by making members vote on an amendment of the Census changes put forward.
"I think we need to keep up the pressure, and that's why we're looking at… ways we can move this motion forward in Parliament and force labor to be on the record," he told reporters on Friday.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton supported the government's not adding questions to the Census, stating that in its current form "stood us well as a country".
But Liberal MP Bridget Archer disagreed with Dutton's characterisation of a "woke agenda" and had described the omission of the questions from the 2026 Census as "frustrating".
"It's just information," she told the ABC on Friday. "If you don't collect that information, then you can’t use it."
