• Ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 year ago

    Given how they went out of their way to reject inclusion of gender and sexuality in the last census, I don’t have high hopes for this one

    • Zagorath@aussie.zone
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      1 year ago

      Wasn’t that a political decision made by the government, rather than by apolitical civil servants?

      • Ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        1 year ago

        It was, but the politicians aren’t going anywhere, and anti LGBT sentiment has increased since last time, making it even more likely they’ll get involved

        • lordriffington@aussie.zone
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          1 year ago

          We at least have different politicians in charge at the moment, and as long as they stay around long enough I’m reasonably confident that it’ll be at least a step in the right direction.

          • Ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            1 year ago

            Given how willing even they are to throw trans folk under the bus of political convenience, I’m a little more cynical :/

    • shirro@aussie.zone
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      1 year ago

      The risks are small, particularly in the short term and also apply to questions like religion but I respect that decision as we never know the long term risks and history is full of warnings. Changes in the 2016 census removed some of the anonymity protections that existed previously and we ever had sufficient public debate about the changes. The mainstream media and politicians were very dismissive of privacy advocates and the public was typically apathetic and ignorant.

      Census information can be important for the provision of services. The historical default is going to be that most services are tailored to cis hetero people and if many decision makers live in a cis hetero bubble as many people including myself do then data informs and assists in addressing inequities.

      Religious lobby groups are immensely influential despite the census showing a steady decline in religion and we have a large and growing gap in public vs religious school funding which is causing serious disadvantage and social problems. The census data is potentially a valuable tool for people wishing to address inequalities and argue against bad policy. Gender and sexuality data will only strengthen the case against the redirection of taxpayer funds to these groups.

      • naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        sure but like 2 doctors had to legally grope me to affirm my birth cert change which in itself is a eugenics program. Forgive my distrust.

    • Walk_blesseD@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 year ago

      Yeah righto, cunt. I really don’t think you gotta worry about 99.5% of the population writing in “piss off mate” on their census forms, and as far as the government’s concerned, having accurate demographic data is actually very useful for allocation of funding.

      I’m also curious as to what exactly you think the “identity game” you mentioned is.

      At any rate, you’re factually incorrect about gender and sex being specific in their definitions. They’re both just bullshit abstract categorisations made according to a vague set of values from across a nebulous grouping of criteria. And unless you arbitrarily mangle their “specific meaning” beyond any utility, neither of them is a simple Male/Female binary in which those categories are mutually exclusive.

    • OnlyAwfulNamesLeft@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      Literally only a few years ago we had a national argument about sexuality. Shouldn’t we at least have some national demographics to back up this kind of discourse? An understanding of who modern Australia really is?

      • Garper@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Conservatives really don’t want you to find out who modern Australia really is. It’ll just shine a light on how much they’ve stagnated since the last census