Three Australian women’s liberation groups came together at the end of April this year to make a joint submission to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), arguing that a question only on sex qua sex recorded or observed at birth should be asked in the sex topic in the 2026 Australian Census.
As sister organisations WAAC (Canberra), WAAT (Tasmania), and QWAA (Queensland), formed the Affiliation of Australian Women’s Action Alliances (AAWAA) and advocated that the Australian census must collect objective data on sex if we are to have properly informed research on the distinct health and social experiences of women and girls, including in education, employment, and housing.
AAWAA noted that the accuracy of this data – at the national, state, and local levels – is essential to policies, budget allocations, and research that address the disadvantage, discrimination, and sexism experienced by women and girls, and asked the ABS to revert to a single, binary (Female/Male) sex question to minimise the risk that subjective elements connected with ‘sex self-identification’ lessen the objectivity of collected sex data for researchers and policy makers.
We have other projects and submissions in the pipeline, with new organisations also joining AAWAA from South Australia (SAWAA) and Western Australia (WAWAA).
Read the full submission, below.
