For the first time ever, this year’s Australian Census will count same-sex couples who are married.
On census night Tuesday 9 August your form will ask with Question 5 what two householders’ relationship to each other are. You can choose to answer “Husband or wife” regardless of the gender of the people involved.
The Australian Marriage Equality lobby group spokespersonPeter Furness believes the fact that the Australian Bureau of Statistics allows same-sex partners to indicate if they are married on the Census is an important sign of respect to our communities.
“It also highlights how nonsensical the Federal Government’s failure to recognise same-sex marriage has become,” he adds.
“We urge all same-sex partners who want to indicate they are married to take advantage of the fact that now they can.”
Furness noted that the number of same-sex marriages recorded in this year’s Census will be made public in July next year.
“The ABS will provide the Government with a baseline figure for the number of couples they are discriminating against on July 12th 2012, which is expected to be a key time in the marriage equality debate.”
On census night Tuesday 9 August your form will ask with Question 5 what two householders’ relationship to each other are. You can choose to answer “Husband or wife” regardless of the gender of the people involved.
The Australian Marriage Equality lobby group spokespersonPeter Furness believes the fact that the Australian Bureau of Statistics allows same-sex partners to indicate if they are married on the Census is an important sign of respect to our communities.
“It also highlights how nonsensical the Federal Government’s failure to recognise same-sex marriage has become,” he adds.
Furness noted that the number of same-sex marriages recorded in this year’s Census will be made public in July next year.
“The ABS will provide the Government with a baseline figure for the number of couples they are discriminating against on July 12th 2012, which is expected to be a key time in the marriage equality debate.”
