A senator has renewed calls for a question about sexual orientation to be added to the 2021 census, following the announcement the Australian Bureau of Statistics will be asking the question on other future surveys.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A list of topics recommended by the ABS for the next census did include sexual orientation and sample forms were printed, but was scrapped by the government. Two departments favoured including the question.
The ABS this week revealed it was standardising questions on gender identity and sexual orientation ahead of seven upcoming surveys for the Department of Health. Labor Senator Louise Pratt welcomed that decision.
"It's critically important that the data the ABC collects properly reflects the sex, gender, family and relationship diversity of Australian people," Senator Pratt said. "Without this data our statistics don't tell the real story of our lives as a nation.
"I would like an explanation as to why, seeing as this is now an official ABS data policy, it shouldn't be also applied to the Australian census due in August this year."
Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar, who decides the census topics, did not respond to questions.
Sex and gender questions were also expanded to include non-binary as a response choice.
Harley Dennett
Former federal politics bureau chief for the Canberra Times, via a career that's taken me from rural Victoria to Washington DC. Telling the stories of my local LGBTI community brought me to political journalism, where I've covered eight budgets, four national elections in two countries, Defence, public service and international governance.
Former federal politics bureau chief for the Canberra Times, via a career that's taken me from rural Victoria to Washington DC. Telling the stories of my local LGBTI community brought me to political journalism, where I've covered eight budgets, four national elections in two countries, Defence, public service and international governance.
