The 2026 census, LGBTI people, and workplace concerns

Inclusion of questions on LGBTI people in the 2026 census could help dispel workplace harassment, says the Diversity Council Australia.

On Friday (30 August), the Diversity Council Australia released a statement expressing its disappointment in the government’s apparent “flip-flopping” on whether it will be including LGBTI data in the 2026 census.

With the next census set to occur in 2026, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) – which is responsible for the roll-out and collection of the data – was originally planning to review the questions that would be included in the upcoming census.

This review included potentially introducing new questions and scraping old and outdated ones. These questions must be approved by the government and put to Parliament before they can be a part of the census.

The 2021 census failed to include questions pertaining to identifying LGBTI people throughout Australia, which resulted in an outpouring of criticisms on the basis that the LGBTI community was being excluded.

The backlash prompted a statement from the ABS, which expressed its regret, claiming it would work with the LGBTI community to alter the 2026 ensure to involve such questions, ensuring that no further exclusion would occur.

“The ABS is committed to processes and approaches for the 2026 census to minimise the risk of further harm,” said the ABS in a statement according to the ABC.

“The ABS is aware that for some respondents, the absence of questions on their gender identity, variations of sex characteristics or sexual orientation meant that they felt invisible and excluded when completing the census and in the census results produced.”

Deliberate action was undertaken by the ABS to include these questions in the next census, as it organised an advisory board that would oversee the formulation of the new questions, which would enter the testing phase.

However, after the government decided that the questions would, in fact, remain the same as the ones in the 2021 census, ABS head statistician David Gruen had to assume the walk of shame and announce that the new questions that were supposed to be trialled were now being disregarded altogether.

“Given the government’s announcement yesterday that topics will remain unchanged from 2021, I have made the decision that the upcoming test will not proceed,” Gruen said.

So, why the sudden backflip?

The Albanese government decided to scrap the plans for new LGBTI questions in the 2026 census in an attempt to avoid triggering a “divisive culture war”, ultimately fearing the inclusion of such questions would invoke “nasty” and “divisive” discourse, causing more harm than good.

The wishy-washy retort was, of course, met with quick rebuttals from both external sources and in-house ministers who completely disagreed with the decision.

The Diversity Council Australia (DCA) was one of the many external sources that voiced their detestation of the sudden abandonment of questions that were put into the works immediately following the 2021 census.

“Diversity Council Australia (DCA) is deeply disappointed by the federal government’s decision to exclude questions on LGBTIQ+ people in the 2026 census,” it said.

“The potential benefits of gathering data on LGBTIQ+ populations in Australia are significant, while the negative consequences of ‘quietly dumping’ LGBTIQ+ people ‘back into the statistical closet’ are extremely concerning.”

“Blaming the LGBTIQ+ community for causing divisive debate equates to victim blaming. The divisiveness is not caused by the community rendered invisible by the government’s decision to exclude them from data collection.”

Backlash from Albanese’s own ministers came swift, as six of Labor’s MPs publicly denounced the decision to scrap the question, relaying a message to the LGBTI community that “you count and you matter”, arguing that excluding such questions could be seen as a human rights issue. There, however, was one person in support of Albanese’s decision.

In a rare act of harmony, Albanese and Peter Dutton both agreed on the exclusion of such questions from the 2026 census – of course, for entirely different reasons.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Dutton cited his monotonous trademark, that is, the “woke agenda”, as his reasoning for not including such questions, stating the regular formula has “stood us well as a country”.

More flip-flops than Bondi

The saga was not over, however, as Albanese changed his mind again, deciding that they would, in fact, include LGBTI questions in the census – albeit very watered-down revisions of the original selection that were supposed to enter the testing stage.

As reported by The Sydney Morning Herald, these questions will be based on sexuality and sexual preference, pertaining to lesbian, gay and bisexual Australians, maintaining the decision to exclude transgender and intersex Australians from being included in the questions.

Why the data is important

The questions that were originally posed to enter testing, in collaboration with the ABS, would have covered all members of the LGBTI community, which would have, in turn, increased the data collection that is extremely sought after by organisations such as the DCA.

The DCA claims that the magnitude of the influx of data that the census would have collected can have a huge effect in effectively addressing the acts of workplace exclusion, harassment, and discrimination – which can only happen with large quantities of available data.

“The available evidence, including our own research, makes it clear that to effectively address workplace exclusion, harassment, and discrimination, we need better data on these diverse groups,” the DCA said.

“LGBTIQ+ Health Australia points to the significant health and wellbeing impacts of collecting this data. Research highlights the many risks facing young LGBTQA+ young people, and trans and gender diverse people in particular. These relate to their health and wellbeing, suicide risk, homelessness, and domestic and family violence. These are serious issues that go beyond ‘first-world concerns’, as one member of the coalition has suggested.”

As stated, one cannot underestimate the importance of the data as it pertains to fixing key issues that are extremely detrimental to the LGBTI community. Merely viewing the data collection exercise would be underplaying the immediate value it can offer not only the LGBTI community, but the Australian workplace – where a lot of these issues are still running rampant.

“The census is not just a data collection exercise in its own right – the data is used to provide rationale for funding significant health and wellbeing policy and programs, including workplace inclusion,” the DCA said.