Sky News host Peta Credlin has voiced her opposition to the Australian Bureau of Statistics seeking information on how many people identify as transgender or non-binary gender.
Tony Abbott’s former Chief of Staff delivered her opposition to questions about being gender being included in the 2021 census at the top of her afternoon show on Sky News.
“If the government is going to get things right it needs to know who lives where, and how everyone lives.” Credlin said of the census. “Facts matter and their critical for governments to make policy and properly implement it.”
The TV presenter said “opinions” had not place in the census and went on to categorise questions about gender and sexuality as being opinions rather than fact.
“Whether you’re male or female for instance is a fact. You are or you aren’t.” Credlin said. “What you might identify yourself as, well that’s an opinion, and whatever it might be doesn’t change the facts.”
Credlin said the ABS had developed a habit of asking people what they wanted to see in the census, and because universities and other government grant funded bodies had become populated by activists who now spend their time “trying to work out ways to turn society upside down”.
The ABS has announced it will no longer be collecting information on internet access because nowadays household internet access is almost universal via smart phones, and it will no longer collection information on vehicle registrations because the information can be sourced from other channels.
Credlin said the agency should remain focussed on these issues rather than asking about a non-binary sex and gender, sexual orientation and contemporary measures of their own household and family relationships.
Credlin said the issue of people’s gender, sexuality and family structure was a personal matter and should be of no interest to the government or statisticians.
Credlin accused the Australian Bureau of Statistics of turning the census into a “tool for social engineering and the latest fads of ‘the left'”, arguing that the organisation was no longer tracking social trends but “pushing them”.
The TV host said she hoped that a “sensible government” would be elected at the next election to ensure that the integrity of the census was protected.
Credlin: Whether you’re male or female, for instance, is a fact. You are or you aren’t. What you might identify yourself as, well that’s an opinion and whatever it might be, doesn’t change the facts.
MORE: https://t.co/ykweMevBOK #Credlin pic.twitter.com/gRgjplCKL8
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) November 15, 2018
OIP Staff
