Stephen Bates (Brisbane, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, why did you make a captain's call to not include LGBTIQA+ people in the census? Do you think the pain caused by this decision underscores the need for a LGBTIQA+ human rights commissioner?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Brisbane for his question. The 2026 census will include sexual orientation and gender for the first time. We value every Australian. That's who we are as a political party and as a movement. Now, the ABS came to the government with potential changes it planned to trial, including changes it had not recommended for the 2026 census. We paused that process to get it right. That is precisely what we have done. The government's position follows further engagement with the community and additional discussions with the ABS. 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. Regulations to add this new topic will be finalised before the end of the year. This is how you get a commonsense solution—by working with people in order to achieve the objective that we have set.

When I sat in my first term as a member of the House of Representatives, I was the first person to move a private member's bill to give equality for same-sex people in any bill that had been brought before this House. That goes back to 1998, and ever since then I have argued the case for equality, regardless of people's sexual orientation, regardless of their identity, regardless of their race and regardless of their faith. What the census is about is recording the state of Australia in 2026, and that's precisely what it will do.