Conservatives are kicking up a fuss after the announcement of gender and sexuality questions being announced for the 2026 Census. John Turnbull explains why this is an important step for Australia.
AFTER A SERIES of Olympic-level backflips from our esteemed PM, questions on gender and sexuality will be included in the 2026 Census.
The reaction from across the political spectrum has been predictable, to say the least. Right-wing commentators from Sky News to The Australian have been crying “woke” and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has jumped on the bandwagon with his typical hyperbolic fervour.
Dutton said:
“If you’ve got the woke agenda, which I think is at odds with the vast majority of Australians, then the Prime Minister should argue that case, but I think we’re pretty happy with the settings that we’ve got in place at the moment.”
The always rational and measured Senator Pauline Hanson called the inclusion of questions about gender and sexuality an “absolute joke”.
With many LGBTQIA+ groups having pushed for recognition since 2021, the reaction from the community has been cautiously positive, with Equality Australia chief executive Anna Brown commenting:
“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.”
What the data could tell us
In my role as cultural consultant, I have spent countless hours digging through Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Census data (via their basic but functional TableBuilder site) and used this to advise publishers, business and the Government on how to connect with diverse Australians.
Census data tells us what parts of the country that different groups live, what their family structure is, whether they have any disabilities, what they do for a living and whether they struggle to afford their mortgage or rent.
Last time the Census was conducted in 2021, 5.5 million Australians chose to speak a language other than English at home. Note that this doesn’t mean that they can’t speak English, but rather they choose to speak their heritage language to retain a connection to their culture.
Census data shows that only 4% of Indian Australians speak little to no English, yet according to research from McNair (the only major Australian research company to conduct research in-language), Punjabi speakers consume 50% of their media in their native language. Understanding diverse communities is essential for connecting with them and making them feel part of this country.
From a government perspective, Census information is vital for the planning of community and health services, particularly with ABS data showing that LGBTQIA+ Australians have significantly higher rates of distress, poorer levels of social and emotional wellbeing and poorer mental health.
Last but not least, Australians under the age of 16 will not be asked these questions and respondents will have the option not to answer if they choose.
Data = dollars
There are countless different data sources available to ad agencies and marketers, but the staggering sample size of Census data makes it gold standard. Agencies and brands use Census data to target their multi-million dollar advertising spend, and if there is no data available on a certain group, most agencies and brands put it in the “too hard” basket.
Research from KPMG shows that three in five Australians are willing to pay more to a company that is seen as being ethical or giving back to society. Despite the backlash against brand activism in some circles, the movement is alive and well, with NRMA/IAG recently committing more than 3% of their annual ad spend to Indigenous owned media.
As it stands in late 2024, there is very little robust data on LGBTQIA+ Australians. Sure, there is some pop-research like the recent Body+Soul 2024 Sex Census, which reflects that only two in three Gen Z identify as “straight/heterosexual”, compared to 75% of millennials, 84% of Gen X and 91% of boomers, but this research is neither freely available or subject to deeper analysis.
From Statista:
‘The LGBTIQ+ community itself is a minority population group that has slowly but steadily been recognised and provided rights by legal institutions within Australia since the 1970s. While the exact share is not known, recent reports have estimated that around 11% of the Australian population identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or intersex.”
That’s more than one in ten Australians who are potentially invisible, or who at least could be understood better.
John Turnbull is a cultural consultant with over a dozen years experience connecting with and understanding diverse Australian communities.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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