Aug 30, 2024 – Almost 70 organisations working to support LGBTIQ+ communities across Australia have signed a statement calling on the federal government to reconsider its position on the 2026 Census.
“Not only has the government missed an opportunity to finally reflect the real diversity of the Australian community, but it will fail to gather crucial information to inform its own planning, financial assessment, policy development and service delivery,” said the statement (see below).
“This is despite repeated calls for this baseline population data from service providers, health entities, government departments, bureaucrats, businesses and academics, who rely on the census to tell them about our country's economic, social and cultural make-up.”
The statement joins a growing number of voices calling on the Albanese government to finally count LGBTIQ+ people properly in 2026. On Thursday some Labor MPs voiced their support for new questions capturing LGBTIQ+ communities along with 11 crossbenchers and Greens MPs. Three coalition MPs reportedly said they were unfazed by the proposed changes.
The government has justified dumping the changes by saying it doesn’t want a divisive debate.
“Far from this being a divisive debate, there is widespread support for these new questions from across the parliament,” said Equality Australia CEO Anna Brown.
“They recognise these are sensible and pragmatic changes that will simply mean governments and other service providers have the data they need to make sound decisions.
“Including LGBTIQ+ people in the census simply brings Australia into line with countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, Scotland and New Zealand that already count our communities.”
Jackie Turner, Director of the Trans Justice Project:
“What the government is saying by excluding us from the census is that our communities, our families, and our friends don't count. The government needs to re-commit to their own party platform and support these common-sense changes.”
Jeremy Wiggins, CEO of Transcend:
“Trans, gender diverse and non-binary Australians are systematically erased in too many areas of our lives already. We face disproportionately poor health outcomes as a result.
“We exist across tens of thousands of households across Australia and if our identities are not accurately captured in the census, then the data will be extremely poor, and it will lead to years of ongoing health and policy failures for our communities.”
Intersex advocate Tony Briffa:
“Governments need reliable data to make decisions about the delivery of vital health and community services and yet the census doesn’t capture even the most basic information about how many people in Australia are born with biological variations of sex characteristics.
“This impacts policy and service delivery on everything from health, family support and participation in sport.”
The full statement can be found here: https://equalityaustralia.org.au/lgbtiq-community-joint-statement-on-census-decision/
