Anthony Albanese, the first prime minister to march in a Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, has backflipped on a decision to exclude questions about gender and sexuality from the 2026 census.
After several Labor MPs broke ranks on the issue, Mr Albanese told the ABC on Friday that a question would be included provided Australian Bureau of Statistics “testing goes OK”.
“We’ve been talking with the Australian Bureau of Statistics and they’re going to test for a new question,” he said.
“One question about sexuality, sexual preference. They’ll be testing, making sure as well that people will have the option of not answering it (if they) prefer not to answer.”
Anthony Albanese, with fiancee Jodie Haydon and NSW Premier Chris Minns, was the first prime minister to take part in the Mardi Gras parade in Sydney in 2023. Picture: NewsWire / Jeremy Piper
Mr Albanese said a draft question had been developed this week.
Labor had promised to include LGBTQIA+ Australians in the census, which is why revelations the Albanese government would not caused a stir.
Asked why he was backflipping on the backflip, Mr Albanese played down the political pressure.
“This is the first time I’ve been asked about it,” he said.
“What there isn’t going to be is holus-bolus massive changes to the census because we think that it’s been pretty effective in the past, and for a range of issues the census isn’t the right vehicle to engage with the community across a whole range of issues.”
He said the census was “not the be all and end all”, adding that the government collected data “in a range of ways”.
The proposed question’s re-inclusion was simply part of a “modernising” process, according to M Albanese.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has played down the political pressure amid his government’s backflipping on the census backflip. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman
At least six Labor politicians had criticised the decision to not count LGBTQ Australians in the next census, including Assistant Health Minister Ged Kearney.
Alicia Payne, Michelle Ananda-Rajah and Jerome Laxale joined Josh Burns and Peter Khalil in calling for the government to reverse its call to not include new sexuality questions in the census.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, who on Thursday had said the question reflected a “woke agenda”, on Friday said he was prepared to discuss the issue with the government.
“We can have a sensible way forward, but the prime minister at the moment I think is demonstrating he that has lost control of the agenda,” Mr Dutton said.
