Liberal MP James Stevens has shared his thoughts on the proposals to include more questions about gender and sexuality on the census, comparing it to people who record their religion as Jedi.
The South Australian MP was appearing on the Sky News program Credlin when he shared his views on who are transgender or intersex.
“There are two genders, male and female.” Stevens told stand-in host Steve Price. “I don’t know why it is that we having these endless debates about this, and I think a lot of Australian are going to become really confused, and it’s potentially going to affect the census.”
“There was a time that they wanted to put Jedi Knight down as a religious option, and I just think lets keep things nice and straight forward and simple. There are two genders male and female, no question about it.” Stevens said.
While the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) have put forward a series of questions about sexuality and gender for the 2026 census, they have never proposed adding Jedi Knight as an option for the question on religion.
In fact the Australian Bureau of Statistics has previously asked people not to put Jedi down as their religion, highlighting the importance of the census capturing accurate information.
In the 2001 Australian Census more than 70,000 Australians did put the fictional religion from the Star Wars films down as their religion listing it in the ‘other’ category provided alongside the major religious denominations.
In subsequent census the number of people describing themselves has dropped, and the answer is seen as a protest against organised religion, and the perceived intrusive nature of some census questions.
For the next census the Australian Bureau of Statistics have announced that will uses the wording “sex recorded at birth” to differentiate the difference between people’s birth sex, and current gender presentation. It will be the first time information about the number of people who identify as transgender or non-binary will be captured in the census.
“The Census provides some of Australia’s most valuable statistics, and it’s important that it reflects our contemporary society and captures emerging data needs,” Georgia Chapman, the ABS’ 2026 Census content director, said on Monday.
“We considered over 1,000 pieces of feedback during public consultation and have tested extensively with a wide range of Australians.”
Last year Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stepped and removed the long promised questions from the census, but they were reinstated a week later after the government faced fierce criticism for the intervention.
James Ashby, the spokesperson for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, was also appearing on the program, he went one step further arguing the government didn’t need to know information on people’s sexuality, or if Australians were in any kind of relationship.
“I have no interest in knowing if you are in a same-sex relationship, or a heterosexual relationship, or one with your donkey.” Ashby said. “I don’t care, it should be on the census.”
The One Nation spokesperson said in the next term of parliament his party would work to remove questions about relationship status or sexuality from the census completely.
The topics to be covered in the census are determined by the government of the day, while the wording and methodology used in the responsibility of the ABS.
