The Albanese government was warned that excluding questions on sexual orientation and gender identity from the census could increase feelings of exclusion in the LGBTQ+ community and even risk the success of the data collection exercise, newly released documents reveal.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics raised concerns in ministerial submissions about strong public criticism to scrapping the proposed questions, potential “damage” to relationships with LGBTQ+ expert groups advising on the census and limitations in the quality of data the census collects.
A trove of documents on the government’s deliberations on the census, produced after an order from the Senate, reveal Andrew Leigh had approved the ABS proposal for gender and sexuality questions – before reportedly being overruled by Anthony Albanese. They also detail concern from the ABS about the government’s timeline approving the new questions, requesting a decision so they could begin testing.
After Labor’s controversial decision to scrap plans to ask new questions about gender and sexuality in the 2026 census and then a slow about-face to reinstate the questions after strong public criticism, Liberal senator Dean Smith had requested documents from the ABS and government ministers about the drafting of the census questions. The documents, produced to the Senate this week, detail ABS correspondence with Leigh, the minister responsible for the census, about the need for those new questions.
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”. In submissions to Leigh, the ABS raised concern 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 ABS said in a submission to Leigh on 16 August, a week before the government’s decision to scrap the new questions became public.
“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.”
The ABS also warned that not including the additional question on gender would lead to “continued conflation of sex and gender” in census responses, which they said would lead to “data quality limitations” from the exercise.
It also recommended that Leigh agree to the ABS’s LGBTQ+ expert advisory committee being briefed ahead of any public announcement of the decision not to add new questions “to help reduce damage to an important working relationship”.
The submission states that Leigh told the ABS on 13 August that the government “does not support” the new questions and wanted the same ones from the 2021 census – a decision the ABS said created “risks to the ABS and government”.
But in a 15 July submission to Leigh, the ABS had recommended the assistant minister agree to the recommended topic changes for the 2026 census, and that he write to Albanese seeking his approval – recommendations to which Leigh had agreed.
The Nine newspapers reported in August that Albanese had “put his foot down” and opposed the new questions, overruling Leigh.
That 15 July submission, marked “urgent” and seeking response within two days, said the ABS required a government decision on the proposed topics by the end of July “to mitigate unacceptable risk to a successful 2026 census”. The ABS said its “preference” was for the government’s census decision “to be made public as early as possible”, citing “increasing public interest, particularly from the LGBTIQ+ community, on what will be collected”.
The government decision to initially scrap the new questions came in August.
The ABS has been contacted for comment.
In a statement, an Albanese government spokesperson said: “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.”
“Assistant Minister Leigh advised on 8 September the Government would set a new topic of ‘sexual orientation and gender’ for the 2026 Census.”
After the August decision to scrap the new topics senior ministers defended the stance saying the ABS also collected data about LGBTQ+ people in other ways. Albanese said “the census isn’t the right vehicle to engage with the community across a whole range of issues. It’s not the be-all-and-end-all… We now have data collection in a range of ways.”
The ABS, in briefs prepared for the government for parliamentary question time, noted the sample sizes of its ABS household surveys “are too small” to produce useful data about transgender, gender diverse, lesbian, gay or bisexual Australians – adding weight to the need for dedicated questions in the census.
Those briefs also state that two rounds of public consultation for 2026 census topics had found “strong public value” in asking the sexuality and gender questions, and that initial testing provided “confidence they can be successfully implemented”.
This article by Josh Bulter was originally published by Guardian Australia.
