The social services minister has offered up the latest explanation for why proposed questions on gender and sex variations were dumped from the next census, claiming they were too complicated.
In an interview with Sky News on Sunday, Amanda Rishworth gave a new reason for why new questions had been ditched from the census planning, saying the government had been shown “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,” Rishworth said.
“The census isn’t for another two years and I think we’ve got plenty of time to make sure that we get the questions right.”
It is at least the third explanation government ministers have given since last Sunday for abandoning a proposal to include questions on sexuality, gender, sex variations, Aboriginal and Torres Strait cultural identity and reasons for moving in the past 12 months.
On Wednesday the deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, said the decision was made to avoid “divisive” debates.
That was echoed later by other ministers, including Murray Watt. On Thursday, government backbenchers began to publicly revolt against the change, calling for the decision to be reconsidered.
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On Friday, Anthony Albanese contradicted his ministers by saying there would be “one question on sexuality” included in the next census, but so far the government has not budged on reinstating the gender and intersex questions.
On Saturday, Albanese claimed “nothing has changed” and the government had been “consistent about having a common approach to these issues”.
“We want to make sure that everyone is valued, regardless of their gender, their race, their faith, their sexual orientation,” he said.
“We value every Australian, and we’ll work with the ABS [Australian Bureau of Statistics]. This is a census in 2026, it is two years away, and we’ll work with the ABS. But I think that common sense would see that asking about sexual orientation is a common sense thing to do.”
Pushed on the issue of the gender and sex variation questions, Albanese said the ABS would “work these things through”.
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“You’re talking about 2026 and it’s 2024. My government’s priority has been working through cost-of-living measures, that’s been our focus. And we’ll work with the ABS on those issues,” he said.
Liberal senator Andrew Bragg said he believed questions around sexual orientation and gender identity “are reasonable questions to ask in a modern society”.
“I think the fact that the prime minister has tied himself in knots on this issue shows a great weakness in his own leadership,” he told the ABC Insiders program.
“I mean, 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. But I’m not surprised having now observed this government for a couple of years who doesn’t seem to have any principles.”
After originally referring to the proposal as being part of a “woke agenda” and backing in no-change to the census questions, the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, changed tack on Friday by saying he was “fine” with gender and sexuality questions being included in the next census.
The Greens have said they will bring the issue to a vote in the next parliament sitting if the government doesn’t commit to reinstating the original proposal.