All roads lead to the census. For knowledge about who we are as a community – even the very roads we drive on – the census is the guiding beacon of truth.
Counting people and finding out the who, what and where is central to tax reallocation, identifying needs and providing resources. Without quality census data, governments are blindfolded.
Democracy depends on the census to inform electoral representation and help fight misinformation and disinformation.
But on Sunday something extraordinary happened. The Australian government intervened in the independent conduct of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) after lengthy public consultation and quietly dumped a proposal to include a question about sexuality and gender diversity in the upcoming census.
The ABS has done significant work trying to rebuild public trust in the census after the technical blunders of #censusfail and budget cuts affecting surveying. The first major changes in a generation were made to the 2021 census and the 2026 one was set to be the most progressive population survey the nation has ever seen.
The ABS held meetings with experts and advocates and waded through thousands of correspondence from interested people. The bureau was about to make recommendations to the government on what was to be included in the 2026 questionnaire. Long-term census observers, including yours truly, were excitedly awaiting a briefing on Monday morning on the next steps. Sunday morning’s scoop from Sky News pulled the rug out from us all.
Among the mooted changes, a voluntary sexual orientation question for adults was a likely inclusion. Methodologically the question of sexual orientation had been proven by the ABS to work successfully in the General Social Survey and deliver important insights into social and health disparities among queer folk.
Unlike the previous Liberal government, Labor appeared open to including a question on sexual orientation. While in opposition, the Labor MP Stephen Jones tweeted, upon learning Michael Sukkar would not have approved a question on sexual orientation: “It is now clear that the Minister’s office has interfered with the ABS Census process … They didn’t want to ask questions on Sexual Orientation. Did this come from the PM?”
The same questions should be asked again.
The government is yet to release any meaningful statement explaining why it would blindside Australians and the ABS at the last minute.
The ABS has called out the government’s actions, acknowledging how crushing this ordeal has been.
If dumping these questions was not about money or methodology, is it simply political?
Politics has surrounded Australian censuses but not featured in the process like Trump’s attempts in 2019. Nevertheless, what we’ve seen this week in Australia is unprecedented. The government supported an open and transparent process and then interfered and undercut an independent agency at the last minute.
Worldwide, traditional census-taking is losing favour. The Office for National Statistics in the United Kingdom is looking to dump the survey in favour of administrative data. The ABS has undertaken its own technical work demonstrating how administrative data can produce legislatively mandated population statistics.
But if we leave census-taking to data crunchers collating information about citizens from the likes of Medicare and Centrelink, the nation will be left poorer and less informed. Especially on measures of identity and social indicators.
I don’t hold hope for any major shift in political appetite to be bold and do what is needed on data collection. Sadly it appears political survival is more important than the nation’s interests.
What does it say about us as a nation that we are aggrieved by a voluntary question on sexual orientation? Identity politics appears to be denying our diversity – and no, denying diversity doesn’t make it magically go away. A question on the census won’t make us more or less gay.
Liz Allen is a demographer and senior lecturer at the Australian National University POLIS Centre for Social Policy Research. Dr Allen worked as a graduate at the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006-07
