Albanese told the room “there is no problem with a[sexual] orientation question”,the second MP said,but “we have to have sensible questions going forward” and that there was time to tweak the questions before the census.
The prime minister’s concern was that the more complicated gender questions could be exploited in a new culture war when the government wanted to focus on talking about what it was doing about the cost of living.
A third MP in the meeting confirmed the account provided by the other two sources and said Albanese had spoken “more in sorrow than in anger”.
They added he had “called it correctly in the end” and had subsequently made the right decision toinclude one census question about people’s sexual preferences.
However,the third MP said that before the decision,Albanese had “left Richard Marles,Jim Chalmers and Murray Watt swinging in the wind” as the trio had publicly backed in his initialcaptain’s call to dump all the proposed census questions.
Asked on Tuesday in Perth if he still had confidence in assistant minister Andrew Leigh,who has responsibility for the census,Albanese said:“Yes.”
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It is the second time this year thatdetails have leaked from the Albanese cabinet. This masthead revealed in March that Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic spoke out in cabinet and in a full ministry meeting about ministers being shut out by the powerful expenditure review committee,which makes final decisions about spending proposals in the budget.
The second leak of cabinet discussions,which are supposed to remain confidential,suggests disquiet in government ranks over political strategy and messaging.
This masthead revealed on Monday that the head of Albanese’s media team,Brett Mason,will shortly step down from the role to take up a new job with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade,clearing the way for a refresh of the government’s messaging ahead of the next federal election.
Before the prime minister’s intervention,the Bureau of Statistics had been working on new census questions for some time and planned to brief journalists on the same Monday that cabinet met to discuss the issue. The night before,the bureau cancelled the briefing.
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Privately,Albanese has expressed particular concern over a complex question about gender identity and people with intersex characteristics.
On Tuesday,LGBTIQ+ Health Australia chief executive Nicky Bath called for three new questions to be included in the 2026 census that addressed gender,variations of sex characteristics and sexual orientation.