TRANSCRIPT
The federal government has made a concession on questions for the next Census.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has told the ABC a single question about sexuality will be included in the survey.
"Well, we've been talking with the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and they're going to test for a new question, one one question about sexuality, sexual preference. They'll be testing, making sure as well that people will have the option of not answering it, prefer not to answer. But we think that is a common sense position to be put."
Before the last election, the Labor party promised it would include questions on sexuality and gender identity in the next census.
The census is a national survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics every five years.
It's described as a snapshot of the country - with a survey given to every Australian household to complete.
It helps governments understand the population, and helps inform policy decisions.
Earlier this week, whilst acting as Prime Minister, Richard Marles ruled out any changes to it in order to avoid a fear campaign.
"We don't want to open up a divisive debate in relation to this issue. We've seen how divisive debates have played out across our country and the last thing we want to do is inflict that debate on a sector of our community right now. And that's why we're taking, in broad terms, the set of questions that went to the last census to the next one."
But Anthony Albanese has backed down from that position.
He denies it's a backflip.
He says no one had previously asked him for his thoughts on the matter.
"Well, there's, there's no, this is the first time I've been asked about it. What there isn't going to be is holus-bolus, massive changes to the census, because we think that it's been pretty effective in the past, and for a range of issues, the census isn't the right vehicle to engage with the community."
The change comes after days of pressure from the queer community, with Labor MPs Josh Burns and Peter Khalil speaking out against the decision.
Chief Executive of Equality Australia, Anna Brown, is welcoming the addition of the sexual identity question.
"This snapshot of our nation must include all of us, not just some of us. We're happy that the government has decided to include a sexual orientation question in the census, but until questions on gender identity and intersex people are included, the census won't include all Australians."
But she says collecting data on gender diverse people is critical.
"It's unclear what the government's plans are in relation to questions covering trans people and intersex people, but what we do know is that this data is vital to make government decisions about programs and funding to ensure that they are governing for all Australians."
The government wanted to avoid division in the community by keeping the census questions unchanged from the 2021 survey.
Transgender activist and Uniting Church Minister, Reverend Jo Inkpin, says by excluding people, they've created division themselves.
"I am baffled as why government would not want to help all its people, which is its duty. As a trans woman, I am shocked because of my experience of working with other trans people, daily, weekly people in families, in churches and health settings where trans people are far too invisible already, and if there's no data to help us move forward, then how can we possibly move forward at all? We count as much as anybody else. The government's talking a little bit about division. Well, it's divisive to divide some people off against others."
Greens M-P Stephen Bates raising similar concerns.
"We are not asking for the world, we are asking for the bare minimum. That is to count all of us. Not just ask a question on sexual orientation, but to make sure that we count everyone in the queer community. We should not be trying to divide the queer community up into L-G-B, but no T-I-Q-A plus."
And Opposition Leader Peter Dutton questioning the Prime Minister's reliability as a result of the change.
"I think the Prime Minister's all over the shop. One day he says to a group of people that he's meeting with that he's going to change the question put to the Australian people in the census. The next day, he says that he's not going to do that. Now, he says that he is going to do that. If he's got questions that he wants to put, and legislation is required, let him be upfront and honest, but he's had no conversation with us, and he hasn't approached us in relation to what it is he's proposing."
