Changing the debate: the impact of including sexual orientation and gender in the census

There were concerns their inclusion would be ‘divisive’, but Treasurer Jim Chalmers has since confirmed sexual orientation and gender will both be included. 

With all the toing and froing, have the reasons advocates have been pushing for the change been lost? 

Professor Mary Lou Rasmussen is from the School of Sociology at the Australian National University and co-authored a paper on the issue in 2021. She says although the way things have played out has been damaging, the change itself carries symbolic significance. 

“When you have a document that goes into every home and it has these categories within the document, then we’re educating the community about those categories and their existence.” 

Rasmussen says having data about where people from these communities gather over the course of a couple of decades, would provide real insight. 

“I think that’s significant in terms of the sorts of policies and infrastructures of care that they have in place. 

“[A]lso it shows us where people don’t want to live when they’re part of these communities,” says Rasmussen. 

She says the data will also allow advocacy groups to better allocate existing resources and argue for more resources. 

Rasmussen believes there is no doubt the issue was mishandled.  

“I think it’s a disappointing own goal from the government … and I really hope that it doesn’t become the political football which was what was putting them off making this decision to run it in the first place.” 

Rasmussen says she’s disturbed that questions on variations of sex characteristics will not be part of the census. 

But she believes the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender is important. 

“It’s a huge thing both in Australia and internationally that this data is collected and that it’s seen as a valid thing to collect,” she says.   

“Hopefully in 20 years from now, people will think it was very surprising that this data was never collected.”