Albanese reversed his stance and said there would be one new question on sexual orientation. However, he came under fire for splitting the community by refusing to count transgender Australians.
On Sunday, Chalmers said the government had again changed its position and would include questions on gender. “We have listened to the community,” he said.
“We worked very closely with the Australian Bureau of Statistics. I wanted to say how professional and diligent and sensitive the chief statistician, David Gruen, has been as we worked through these issues. LGBTIQ+ Australians matter. They have been heard and they will count in the 2026 Census.”
However, there will be no new question on sex characteristics, which would have asked whether a person had been told they were born with “innate reproductive development, genetics or hormones that do not fit the medical norms for female or male bodies”.
Assistant Minister for Treasury Andrew Leigh said that question was excluded because ABS testing showed it was too technically complex to collect high-quality data. “The government will continue to work with the intersex community about ways of gathering information in other ABS surveys,” he said.
Leigh said the changes aligned with ABS recommendations and reflected consultation with experts, including those from the LGBT community. “The government’s position follows further engagement with the community and additional discussions with the ABS,” he said.
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“The government will make a legislative instrument to implement these changes, and will introduce this instrument before the end of the year.”
The head of Equality Australia, Anna Brown, said she hoped the changes were passed smoothly by parliament.
“This is the sensible, pragmatic and moral course of action, that will ensure vital data about some of the most vulnerable populations in Australia is collected nationally for the first time,” she said. “It’s now time to let the ABS get on with doing its job.“
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has previously said he is “fine” with members of the LGBT community being counted, although he wanted to see full details. The Coalition was contacted for comment.
The Greens had planned to wedge Labor’s progressive MPs on the issue when parliament returned by bringing a vote that would force them to either side with the government’s revised position to only count sexual orientation, or to back the inclusion of trans people in the survey.
Greens spokesman Stephen Bates welcomed the update but said the saga showed Labor was prepared to walk away from its promises to LGBT Australians.
“The pain and chaos of the past fortnight could have been easily avoided if the Prime Minister had not made a captain’s call to abandon an election promise and exclude us from the census,” he said.
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