The Albanese government’s last-minute rejection of proposed questions on sexuality and gender diversity in the upcoming 2026 census sent bureaucrats into a weekend scramble, new documents show.
In the late hours of Friday 23 August and Saturday 24 August, officials at the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) agreed to cancel a scheduled media briefing on Monday 26 August and the rollout of its “large-scale” test census to 50,000 households from Tuesday 27 August as a result of the 11th-hour decision.
Documents released to Guardian Australia under freedom of information laws show how the independent statistics agency scrambled to ditch its plans within a weekend after a delayed final decision by the government.
The surprise decision was made public on the Sunday following a Sky News report, prompting strong criticism from the LGBTQ+ community and health and demography experts.
Shortly afterwards, the assistant minister, Andrew Leigh, who is responsible for the census, confirmed there would be no changes to the 2026 census.
Despite senior ministers initially defending the decision as necessary to avoid “divisive” debates and to focus on the cost-of-living crisis, the government agreed to reintroduce two questions on sexual orientation and gender identity a fortnight later.
The FoI documents show ABS staff sent two emails to media who had registered to attend the Monday briefing confirming it was going ahead. Another email sent by an ABS employee to the assistant minister’s office on Friday at 5.06pm outlined the communications plan for the following week.
The text of the media alert was also forwarded at 6.02pm on Friday 23 August by an official – whose identity was redacted – to another official – also redacted.
On Saturday afternoon, a meeting was held with more than 10 ABS staff to cancel the planned media briefing on Monday and census test rollout from Tuesday. Staff agreed to destroy the census forms and instructions to 50,000 households and spiked scheduled social media and radio promotions.
A trove of documents was tabled in the Senate in September revealing Leigh approved the new census questions in mid-July only to verbally reverse the decision on 13 August – a move reportedly due to an overruling by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese.
In a ministerial brief handed to Leigh’s office by the ABS, the assistant minister verbally informed the chief statistician, David Gruen, on 13 August of his change in decision. The brief was signed off by Leigh on Friday 23 August – two days after it was due to be actioned.
In 2023, the ABS issued a statement of regret over the distress felt by the LGBTQ+ community over being left out of censuses, acknowledging a lack of questions about gender identity, sexual characteristics or orientation “meant that they felt invisible and excluded”.
The ABS had warned Leigh in a submission on 16 August there was a risk that dropping the proposed new questions “will mean those feelings are repeated for the 2026 census”.
“There is a risk to the successful delivery of the census if there is public criticism and campaigning while the census is under way,” the submission said.
“The ABS expects a strong negative reaction from the LGBTIQ+ community and supportive members of the public. This could reduce the census response rate and quality of the data collected, and draw criticism of the ABS and government.”
An Albanese government spokesperson told Guardian Australia last month “the government sets census topics”.
“The ABS came to the government with potential changes it planned to trial, including changes it had not recommended for the 2026 census. The government paused the process to get it right,” the spokesperson said.
“Assistant minister Leigh advised on 8 September the government would set a new topic of ‘sexual orientation and gender’ for the 2026 census.”
