Prime Minister reverses sexuality question decision for 2026 census

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The government was facing a major backlash from within its own ranks and the LGBT community for not going ahead with plans to add questions about sexuality and gender.

Transcript

00:00I think we're lucky to have a Prime Minister that's basing the decisions that he makes

00:07in government on evidence, and that he's been able to stand up and say, this is an issue

00:15for me to be tackling and for me to better understand, and he's made a good decision

00:18today and is putting the census for 2026 back on track.

00:23Back in 2020, well it was launched in 2021, the ABS actually released a set of variables

00:30to capture questions on sex, gender, variations of sex characteristics, and on sexual orientation.

00:39Now it's those questions that we've been working with in regards to providing advice to the

00:46advisory committee that the ABS has established to be looking at and testing.

00:51So they're not new questions per se, they have been potentially just tightened in some

00:58ways, but these are not new questions, they're questions that have been and are being used

01:04in a variety of settings.

01:06One thing I must make clear is we're still trying to understand what the statement from

01:10the Prime Minister means.

01:11A question on sexual orientation is just that, and the topics that are up for discussion

01:18and where we need to maintain and gain some clarity on is in relation also to gender and

01:24innate variations of sex characteristics.

01:26We need to understand where the Prime Minister is sitting at the moment and we're not quite clear.

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