The census needs to be clear and simple for Australians to complete, one minister says, as the government is under pressure to ask about gender identity.
Labor backtracked on scrapping a planned question about sexuality following anger from LGBTQI groups and one is set to be included in the 2026 national snapshot for the first time.
But the queer community is also calling for the government to ask about gender identity to adequately cover the number of trans and intersex people in Australia and use the information to make better-informed policy decisions.
Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said the government was presented with "questions that were very complex in the census".
"We want people to complete the census and we want simple questions that people can understand and answer, that's really important," she told Sky News on Sunday.
"The census isn't for another two years and I think we've got plenty of time to make sure that we get the question right."
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said there would only be one added question on sexuality as a trial run of the census begins.
He defended adding the question, saying it reflected changing societal attitudes with people able to be more upfront with their sexuality in today's day and age.
Liberal moderate Andrew Bragg said asking about sexual orientation and gender identity "are reasonable questions to ask in a modern society".
"The Labor Party promised this at the last election, so I'm not surprised that the LBGT lobby is very disappointed and feels let down," he told ABC's Insiders.
"The fact that the prime minister has tied himself in knots on this issue shows a great weakness in his own leadership."
Ms Rishworth said there were other ways to collect data, which the government was doing as it worked through a decade-long plan on LGBTQI health and wellbeing.
Advocates had pointed to the same plan when spruiking the need for more national and comprehensive data about all parts of the LGBTQI community.
Labor pledged to count the queer community in the next census before an unexpected announcement scrapping the proposal in late August as the Australian Bureau of Statistics prepared a trial run.
With Mr Albanese out of the country, his ministers defended the decision for a number of days, arguing the government didn't want to stoke a divisive fight over the issue, comments the queer community admonished them for.
Mr Albanese insisted nothing has changed after he returned and announced on Friday a question on sexuality would be tested.
He doubled down on Saturday, saying the government had been consistent in "a common sense approach to these issues".
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