It is the second time Labor has disappointed the LGBTQ community after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese abandoned his election pledge to change religious discrimination laws earlier this year.
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Three influential conservative Coalition MPs told this masthead that counting LGBTQ people would not bother them, although Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the new questions should not be included in the census.
Keith Pitt said it was “ludicrous” to suggest the Coalition would focus on the issue in a cost-of-living crisis; Garth Hamilton said Labor was “spooked” by a non-issue; and religious conservative Matt Canavan said: “I’m OK with it – maybe we should ask it”.
Asked about the proposed questions, which would have required Senate approval, Dutton on Thursday said the existing survey “stood us well as a country”.
“If you’ve got the woke agenda, which I think is at odds with the vast majority of Australians, then the prime minister should argue that case, but I think we’re pretty happy with the settings that we’ve got in place.”
The decision to shelve new questions about sexuality and gender has attracted widespread criticism from equality advocates since it was announced on Sunday.
Eleven crossbenchers, including all the teals, wrote on Wednesday to assistant treasury minister Andrew Leigh (who is responsible for the Bureau of Statistics, which runs the census) with their concerns that LGBTQ Australians “are being denied the basic right to be recognised and valued”.
On Thursday, Victorian Deputy Premier Ben Carroll in question time backed his state’s equality minister Harriet Shing in condemning the federal government’s decision, saying “Australian democracy depends on the census”.
Arguing that “better data leads to better policy outcomes”, he called on the Albanese government to “stick to their platform and stick with their promise”.
Sex Discrimination Commissioner Dr Anna Cody on Thursday wrote to Leigh, saying the decision would have “serious implications for the health, wellbeing and general equality of LGBTIQA+ Australians and their families”.
“The aim of the census is to capture a snapshot of Australia, and the data it generates is vital for ensuring services and policy reflect the needs of our country’s diverse populations,” she wrote.
“For LGBTIQA+ people, who face significant health disparities compared to the heterosexual and cisgender population, accurate population data would ensure that informed decisions can be made when investing in health and mental health services.”
Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles on Wednesday confirmed the government decided to keep the census the same as 2021 because it wanted to avoid a “divisive debate”.
But Cody, who is charged with protecting the LGBTQ community from discrimination in her role with the Australian Human Rights Commission, said that excuse was not acceptable.
“I am concerned that this decision will strengthen the voices of discrimination and division that seek to disrupt the nation’s social cohesion,” she said.
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More than 60 health and legal services signed a statement on Thursday saying they were dismayed and frustrated by Labor’s decision, which ignored the extensive work undertaken by their community and the Australian Bureau of Statistics to count LGBTQ people in the census.
“This is despite repeated calls for this baseline population data from service providers, health entities, government departments, bureaucrats, businesses and academics,” they said.
“How can they or any government plan for services that impact our lives, including vital health care and local support for individuals and communities, when there is no accurate data on where we live, what our jobs are, our health issues, where we go to school and what our families look like.”
