Aug 30, 2024 – Equality Australia has welcomed the inclusion of a question on sexual orientation in the next census but says the national snapshot must count all members of the LGBTIQ+ community. 

The prime minister on Friday said the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) would proceed with testing a new question on sexual orientation, although it was unclear what this meant for other topics that would cover trans and gender diverse people and people with innate 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,” said Equality Australia CEO Anna Brown. 

“The federal government shouldn’t pick and choose those of us who are worthy of being counted. 

“Trans and gender diverse people and those with innate variations of sex characteristics deserve to be recognised as much as anyone else. 

“It would be a shame if the government doesn’t trust the Australian public enough to accept that the census needs to gather basic data about our nation for it be meaningful and useful. 

“These are sensible and pragmatic changes that will simply mean governments and other service providers have the data they need to make sound decisions, and there is widespread support for these new questions from across the parliament.   

“Including LGBTQ+ 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.”  

"The trans community needs this data to tell us just how big our community is, where we are living, and to determine what our health and service needs actually are. 

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.” 

Media contact: Tara Ravens 0408 898 154, tara.ravens@equalityaustralia.org.au