No LGBTQ+ questions on Australian census to avoid ‘divisive’ debates, says deputy PM

Australia’s deputy prime minister Richard Marles said the government has opted not to include questions about sexuality and gender in the 2026 census to avoid “divisive debates”.

Last year, the Australian Bureau of Statistics issued a statement of regret after LGBTQ+ people reported feeling “hurt, stress, anguish and other negative reactions” to the absence of LGBTQ+ questions in the 2021 census which “meant that they felt invisible and excluded”.

Following consultations, the proposed questions were set to be in the next census, including ones on gender, sexual orientation and variations of sex characteristics, as well as tweaks to previous questions to capture more data and other new topics about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural identity.

But, on Sunday (25 August), assistant treasury minister Andrew Leigh revealed that the questions would not now be included, news which was echoed the next day by the head of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, David Gruen, who said the organisation was “adjust-testing plans in light of this announcement, to best prepare for a successful census, one that is safe, secure and easy to complete”.

Marles told journalists that the decision – which brought outcry and criticism from politicians, activists and LGBTQ+ and human rights groups – had been taken because the government “do not want to open up divisive debates in the community”, The Guardian reported.

“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,” he said. “That’s why we are taking, in broad terms, the set of questions that went to the last census.

“We want the census to be gathering as much useful data for our country as possible.”

In a statement posted on social media, the New South Wales branch of Rainbow Labor, the official LGBTQ+ association of the Labor Party, criticised the decision, saying: “[The] census provides vital information for our government and support services to ensure the needs of our LGBTQ+ community are heard, addressed and met.

“To effectively address outcomes, valid data is needed to solve these issues. We believe in the right for our community to be reflected in our national census data otherwise we remain invisible in the eyes of the nation.”

A spokesperson for Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras echoed that thought, telling The Guardian: “Without comprehensive and inclusive data, the full diversity of our community remains invisible and marginalised, hindering efforts to tackle the specific challenges faced by LGBTQIA+ people in Australia.”

Allegra Spender, the independent MP for Wentworth, a suburb of Sydney, wrote to Leigh, telling him she said she was “appalled” by the decision, and that without proper data on LGBTQ+ Australians, it would be “impossible to properly design policy to support this community and to ensure there are appropriate services in areas like health and wellbeing”.

Even within Labor, the discontent was clear. Josh Burns, the MP for Macnamara, in Melbourne, broke ranks to criticise the move.

“I’ve made it clear that the way we govern needs to be inclusive and the census is an important tool to gather data and feed that into government systems and services,” he said. “For that to work the best it can, we need as few blind spots as possible, which is why I am asking the government to reconsider this decision.

“It is not too much to ask for people to be counted.”

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