Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has hit back at accusations that he is trying to limit the scope of the 2026 census and in the process driving a wedge through Australia’s LGBTIQA+ communities.
The PM said the government is focused on tackling cost of living challenges, not what’s going to be in the census in two years time.
On Sunday the government announced that it would be removing long promised questions about gender and sexuality from the 2026 census. The decision drew strong criticism from rights and health groups and as the week drew on members of the PM’s own party began to publicly question the decision.
By Thursday night six of the Prime Minister’s own backbenchers were publicly calling for the questions to be reinstated. Early on Friday morning Albanese told a Melbourne radio station that he was going to allow a question about sexuality to be included, but not questions focusing on gender.
Senior government ministers had defended the original decision saying it was taking action to save people from “nastiness” and a “divisive debate”. However, the move to reinstate only some of the proposed questions drew a second wave of criticism directed squarely at the government.
Media reports on Saturday morning began to suggest that the original decision to pull the section of the census had come directly from the Prime Minister. On Saturday afternoon Albanese faced the media and denied he was limiting the scope of the census.
“No, there’s a range of other questions, including there’s already an identity question in the census. The ABS will work these things through, you’re talking about 2026 and its 2024,” he said.
“My government’s priority has been working through cost of living measures, that’s been our focus, and we’ll work with the ABS on those issues.”
The Prime Minister said the census in its current form values every Australian.
“Nothing has changed. We are consistent about having a common-sense approach to these issues, we want to make sure that everyone is valued, regardless of their gender, their race, their faith, their sexual orientation, we value every Australian,” he said.
Equality Australia have described the PM’s approach as “picking and choosing” which members of the LGBTIQA+ communities are recognised.
“Trans and gender-diverse people and those with innate variations of sex characteristics deserve to be recognised as much as anyone else,” Equality Australia’s Anna Brown said.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton had welcomed the decision to dump the questions about sexuality and gender from the census, describing them as being part of the “woke agenda”.
National’s leader David Littleproud has a different view, during a media call in Bunbury he said if the questions provided data that is needed, they should be in the census form.
