LGBTIQA+ community
Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (09:49): Last week in an adjournment I asked the Minister for Equality Harriet Shing to continue her tireless advocacy to the federal government on properly acknowledging gender and sexually diverse people in the census. I am very pleased to be here today, two weeks later, to see that those questions have now been included in the census, although there is still some gap in regard to intersex people. The collection of data as it relates to people, including vulnerable people – for example, transgender people – accessing critical health care is really important, because without that proper data we cannot work on the solutions that make health care available and accessible to all Victorians. Irrespective of gender, sexuality, race or any other matter, all Victorians deserve rights to those services, and this census data will help with that.