After a false start and some ministerial intervention, questions on gender and sexual orientation together with Indigenous and ethnic cultural identity are in the frame for first-time inclusion in the next Australian census in 2026.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) had been instructed by the previous Coalition government not to ask about sexual orientation in the five-yearly snapshot of the nation.
Thousands of trial 2021 census forms were pulped in October 2019 after a preference was expressed by the office of the then assistant treasurer Michael Sukkar over the inclusion of gender and sexual orientation questions.
After community, government, and stakeholder input, the ABS on Thursday published a shortlist of new and potentially changed topics being considered for the 2026 census.
'Strong public value'
The ABS has now revealed the topics of gender, sexual orientation, and variations of sex characteristics are among the 28 new or changed topics that were assessed as having strong public value and are being considered further in the topic review process. It notes that gender is a social and cultural concept.
The ABS said it had received feedback, including submissions from both the 2026 and the 2021 census consultation, that there is a need to collect gender in addition to changing the question on sex to collect 'sex recorded at birth'. The latter would assist with counts for the transgender and gender-diverse community.
The 2021 survey was the first time respondents had the option to select non-binary as their gender.
A question on variations of sex characteristics is also up for inclusion in 2026, with the ABS acting on feedback that there is a significant data gap for people with innate genetic, hormonal, or physical sex characteristics that don't conform to medical norms.
Also up for inclusion, as having strong public value, is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural identity.
The ABS said it had received feedback that the current topic on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status does not, on its own, fully reflect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identity.
This data was encouraged to provide greater insight into the diversity of Indigenous peoples and their connections with communities, nations, and clans/language groups.
Further questions on cultural diversity were also encouraged. The ABS said it received feedback that there is a need to collect a measure of the ethnicities people identify with "in combination with, or in replacement of, ancestry data."
There are also strong cases, according to the ABS, to ask a more broader set of census questions on disability. The 2021 census focused on people conceptually described as having a profound or severe limitation.
The ABS is also looking to collect data on a student's journey to education, enhance the information collected in the long-term health conditions question, new information on shared care arrangements for children, household energy use, and find out figures for unoccupied dwellings.
Some of the topics which appear to be on track to be dropped from the next census include the number of motor vehicles, unpaid work - domestic activities, and the number of children ever born. The latter may move to a ten-yearly cycle so it would pop up again in 2031.
The 2026 census topic consultation now moves into phase two, which is several weeks of public consultation and a period where the ABS will commence a feasibility assessment of shortlisted topics.
Public submissions can be made until September 8.
