<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>327864</docID> <postdate>2024-08-29 10:40:13</postdate> <headline>Labor backflip on counting LGBTQI ‘exacerbates hurt’</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-327865" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20220628001674233460-original-resized.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="600" /></p> <caption>Topics on gender and sexuality will not be included in the 2026 census. (Bianca De Marchi/AAP PHOTOS)</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By <strong>Dominic Giannini</strong> and <strong>Kat Wong</strong> in Canberra</span></p> <p><strong>Pressure is mounting on the federal government to include gender identity and sexuality questions in the census as crossbenchers add their voices to a growing chorus of discontent.</strong></p> <p>Independent senator David Pocock said he was at "an absolute loss as to why the government would reverse course on a commitment from last year to build a better, more inclusive picture of our community".</p> <p>"Clearly the ABS has done the work - they've consulted, they've listened, they've come up with proposed new test questions," he said.</p> <p>"This decision exacerbates the hurt already felt by many LGBTI Australians following the last census and I just don't understand why the government would raise expectations only to let them down."</p> <p>Crossbenchers signed a joint letter to the prime minister to reverse its decision to exclude questions on gender identity and sexuality.</p> <p>"This decision has left people in the LGBTIQA+ community feeling excluded, demeaned, and angry. They are being denied the basic right to be recognised and valued," the crossbenchers wrote.</p> <p>"No clear justification has been provided for this so far."</p> <p>Data was needed to adequately design and target policy to support the community, especially in areas such as health and wellbeing, the letter said.</p> <p><a href="https://www.alp.org.au/media/3569/2023-alp-national-platform.pdf">Labor's 2023 national policy platform</a>Â said the party "believes that LGBTIQ+ Australians should be counted as part of the national census".</p> <p>It committed to ensuring relevant data was collected on LGBTQI Australians in the 2026 census and discontinuing randomly assigning non-binary and intersex people as male or female.</p> <p>The Australian Bureau of Statistics - which runs the census - apologised for not including sexual orientation in the 2021 snapshot and determined to invest and support the LGBTQI community "to fully participate" in the next one.</p> <p>Treasurer Jim Chalmers doubled down on the decision after Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said the government wanted to avoid "a divisive debate".</p> <p>Dr Chalmers said he understood the feedback from the community but "the census is still a couple of years away and our focus has been on other things, including the cost of living".</p> <p>"Our goal here has been to try and avoid some of the nastiness ... in the lead up to the census," he told ABC radio on Thursday.</p> <p>He shut down suggestions the government would reverse its decision.</p> <p>But LQBTQI communities argue they already face a divisive debate and are being treated as a political football.</p> <p>"We know at times we have to trade on those divisive debates for us to be able to progress," LGBTIQ+ Health Australia chief executive Nicky Bath told AAP.</p> <p>"When we're now placed in this position where we're surrounded by these divisive conversations for no gain, it's even more distressing."</p> <p>The LGBTQI community had only asked to be captured in the census, Equality Australia CEO Anna Brown said.</p> <p>To assume all Australians would be angered by a basic acknowledgement of that fact was "insulting", she said.</p> <p>"How counting the queer community in the next census could possibly be responsible for a lack of social cohesion is preposterous at best and victim-blaming at worst," she said.</p> <p>About one in 10 Australians identify as being lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans or gender diverse, the federal health department estimated in 2019.</p> <p>These Australians are disproportionately worse off in mental health, drug use and rates of sexual, family and domestic violence.</p> <p>Dr Chalmers said the census was only one way to gather data.</p> </body>