We still don’t know how many LGBTIQ+ people there are in rural and remote Australia because the census has failed to properly count all Australians for years.
“There is an old saying that we don’t value want we don’t measure” said Mark Burdack, CEO of the Healthy Communities Foundation Australia, a rural health organisation headquartered in Collarenebri in remote NSW.
“Why is it that we can ask people about their religion, their Aboriginality, whether they drive a car to work or catch public transport, whether they have been married or divorced, how old they are, what diseases they may have, but not whether they are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex or queer?”
The Australian census is meant to be a stocktake of who we are as a people, and informs government decisions about where funding is directed and what programs are needed in each community. Yet, the Government has declined again to count LGBTIQ+ in the census.
“If we don’t know how many people in rural Australia are LGBTIQ+, then we won’t have the data to ensure that rural towns are getting the funding and services they need to support local LGBTIQ+ people” said Mr Burdack.
“We know that a large number of LGBTIQ+ people live in rural and remote areas, yet services are primarily located in metropolitan cities meaning rural people, and rural towns, are missing out on the funding, jobs, economic activity and services needed by these valued members of our communities” said Mr Burdack.
In May 2015 every rural electorate in NSW voted by a large margin in favour of marriage equality.
Mr Burdack said: “In 2015 rural people told all political parties emphatically to stop discriminating against LGBTIQ+ people. This should not be a debate in 2024. Rural LGBTIQ+ people should count, just like everyone else”.
Equality Australia has established a petition calling on the Albanese Government to count LGBTIQ+ people in the 2026 Census at https://equalityaustralia.org.au/our-work/countusin/.
For more information call Mark Burdack on 0418974988.
