Wednesday, 28 August 2024

 Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:04): (1089) My adjournment tonight is to the Premier, and the action that I seek is that you advocate to your federal colleagues and implore them to change their position on the census topics for 2026 to ensure that all LGBTIQA+ Australians can be counted. We have all heard the saying ‘Nothing about us without us.’ The 2026 census is the opportunity for the government to finally hear from the LGBTIQA+ community – to know who we are, to know how we live and then to make decisions and policies to benefit our communities. It is supposed to take a snapshot of the whole Australian community, and it is an absolute joke that Labor has betrayed LGBTIQA+ folk by backtracking, refusing to update the next census despite it being part of Labor’s own national platform, agreed to just last year.

After a complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission from someone whose family could not be accurately recorded in the last census, the Australian Bureau of Statistics considered including topics on gender identity, sexuality and variations of sex characteristics. Well, none of that is happening now. How can decisions possibly be made regarding health care, social services, education or economic inclusion that specifically affect LGBTIQA+ people if we are not counted? To quote Nicky Bath from LGBTIQ+ Health Australia:

… people think the census is just about counting all of us when in fact the data from the census is what is responsible for assisting in planning, looking at financial investment, looking at where hospitals are built, where schools are built et cetera. We have incredible health disparities, and we need to know where we are living.

Labor’s refusal to include my community is a slap in the face. It feels like Labor cares more about appeasing Sky News than helping the LGBTIQA+ community. This is not even the first time that Labor have betrayed us or ignored their own platform. I mean, how does the saying go: when you stand for nothing, you will fall for any headline written by the Murdoch press. Premier, please take this up with your federal Labor colleagues and make sure that the LGBTIQA+ community is seen and counted in the census.