WA Primary Health Alliance (WAPHA) supports the Joint Statement in support of the inclusion of three new topics on gender, variations of sex characteristics, and sexual orientation variables into the 2026 Census by LGBTIQ+ Health Australia.
This would help provide better health care services for LGBTIQA+ Australians by ensuring they are accurately counted. *
Having a reliable source of demographic information on LGBTIQA+ people in WA would allow WAPHA to gain essential background and insights to inform service planning and commissioning.
WAPHA CEO Learne Durrington said robust data on LGBTIQA+ health needs and trends are currently scarce, which limits the organisation’s ability to accurately assess and meet the primary health care needs of this population.
“Better data would mean we could start to bridge the gaps in health equity and access to care which currently exist for LGBTIQA+ people, estimated to make up about 11 per cent of WA’s population.”
“Importantly, this would also be a validation and recognition of the LGBTIQA+ community.”
Australia has an ongoing commitment to progress social inclusion and equality for LGBTIQA+ people and now can be a leader in the space by ensuring population-level data collection via the Census is responsive and inclusive of all Australians now and into the future.
Find out more about WAPHA’s commitment to diversity equity and inclusion.
*At this point, there is a commitment to include a single question on sexual orientation in the Census which is contingent on successful testing by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.