The Albanese government may face a parliamentary inquiry into it’s attempts to stop questions about sexuality and gender being included in the 2026 census.
On Tuesday Liberal senator Dean Smith informed the senate that he intended to call for the responsible minister to produce the correspondence, briefing notes, minutes of meetings and other paperwork relating to their decision making process.
The call to produce the documents of the process between the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Treasurer, the Prime Minister and associated assistant ministers could be the first step towards launching a parliamentary inquiry into the government’s actions.
The government announced that long-promised questions on sexuality, gender and sex differentiations would not be included in the census with senior minister giving a variety of reasons for the decision.
The explanations ranged from Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles explaining it was to avoid divisive debates in society, while Treasurer Jim Chalmers said it to protect the LGBTIQA+ communities from “nastiness”.
After a community led backlash the PM said a questions on sexuality would be allowed. Then after further criticism the government backed down and conceded the question on gender identity would also be allowed – but a proposal for counting people with differences in sex characteristics would not be moving forward.
On Monday in the House of Representatives the Prime Minister faced questions over his decision making process. The Greens Stephen bates asked the PM to explain his ‘Captain’s Call’ decision and asked if the events of the last few weeks and shown there was a genuine need for an LGBTIQA+ focused commissioner at the Human Rights Commission.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government had only “paused” the questions from being included.
“We paused that process to get it right. That is precisely what we have done.” the PM said.
“We ensured, for example, that only people aged over the age of consent will be asked questions on the new topic and that people can choose not to answer.” he added.
The PM faced the same question on Tuesday when it was put forward by independent MP Andrew Wilkie who described the government’s recent handling of the census as a “debacle”.
Again the Prime Minister described the government as having only “paused” the census to allow for more community consultation.
“We engaged with the community and had additional discussions with the ABS to make sure that we got the direction right, and I believe that we have and that we can move forward in a way that doesn’t have precisely the unintended consequences that the Deputy Prime Minister was talking about.”
The PM said there was no need for a specific commissioner for LGBTIQA+ Australians, and soon the government would bring forth legislation to protect LGBTIQA+ people from violence.
“We already have in place a commission which works to ensure that the human rights of all Australians, including those from the LGBTQIA+ community, are protected.” Anthony Albanese said.
Later in the day, Stephen Bates told the house that the Albanese government was consistently letting LGBTIQA+ down from their decision to walk away from brining in protections for LGBTIQA+ students in religious based schools, to their meddling in the census to their “paternalistic” statements about wanting to protect people from divisiveness and nastiness.
“I found it condescending.” Bates said. “The queer community is not weak. We do not always need to be protected. We can fight for ourselves. We’ve been campaigning for this census change for years. It was a fight we wanted and were willing to have.
“It was the job of a supposedly progressive government to have our backs in that fight. But I’m not even angry anymore—and I was very angry. I’m just disappointed.”
Bates said the government would need to take more positive action if they hoped to have continued support from people in LGBTIQA+ communities.
“We need an LGBTIQA+ human rights commissioner to help us hold the government of this country to account so that, even when the major parties show their true colours, there are even more voices calling them out and holding them to account.
“I’ve been calling for such a commissioner since I first arrived in this place just a bit over two years ago, and the Greens will keep fighting for one.
“If the Labor Party are to have any hope of rebuilding trust with the queer community in this country, they should get on board and establish this commissioner.”
Rodney Croome says protections against violence are only the first step the government needs to take
Speaking on behalf of Equality Tasmanaia Rodney Croome welcomed the Prime Minister’s commitment to legislation making it a criminal offence to urge violence against LGBTIQA+ Australians.
“We welcome Mr Albanese’s commitment to extending existing federal criminal laws against incitement to violence so they protect LGBTIQA+ people along with other groups vulnerable to violence.”
“But this will not protect us from incitement to hatred in the way other groups currently are.”
“We call on the Albanese Government to extend existing vilification protections in federal discrimination law so LGBTIQA+ people are protected from incitement to hatred as well as incitement to violence.”
