‘Not too much to ask for people to be counted’: Josh Burns breaks ranks on gender and sexuality census questions

Josh Burns says the government must be ‘inclusive and the census is an important tool to gather data and feed into government systems and services’. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Josh Burns has become the first Labor MP to break ranks and call on the government to reverse its decision to ditch gender and sexuality questions in the census.

The Macnamara MP joins the crossbench, the Greens, the sex discrimination commissioner and advocacy groups in calling for the Albanese government to include sexuality and gender questions in the next census, after assistant treasury minister Andrew Leigh announced on Sunday the questions would be dumped.