Council has identified a need for information on sexual orientation. As a local government, Council is required to act for the benefit and wellbeing of the community, which includes service delivery as well as advocacy on behalf of community interests. Understanding the characteristics of the community, including aspects of diversity, is essential for this work.
We lack data on the LGBTI population, including the size of the community, and indicators of age, employment and education, such that our service delivery and advocacy activities currently occur in the absence of reliable information. We cannot be certain that our services are meeting the needs of LGBTI persons.
We note that the Census provides some indication of sexual diversity, capturing information on cohabiting same sex couples and (in 2021 following change to the Marriage Act), same sex legally married couples. This does provide some insight for local service providers.
An explicit question on sexual orientation included in the 2021 Census raises questions of acceptability, completion rates and early exit from the survey, but we note that testing in other jurisdictions indicates it may be possible . Council is not advocating for the inclusion of a sexual orientation question on the 2021 Census at this stage, but would like to submit that serious consideration be given to this option.