SYDNEY - Australia will include questions on sexual orientation and gender in its census for the first time, after more than a week of controversy over the centre-left Labor government's earlier decision to exclude them.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said on Sunday the 2026 census would include sexual orientation and gender, although he declined to specify the questions and said the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) would design them later.

"We have listened to the LGBTIQ+ community to make sure that we can work with the ABS to deliver this really important change when it comes to the 2026 census," he said.

"We say to Australians from the LGBTIQ+ community: you matter, you've been heard, you will be counted."

The questions will be optional and only asked of those over 16 years of age.

The move reverses an August decision to exclude questions about LGBTIQ+ identity.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said then the government did not want to open up divisive debates. He denied any political motives behind the decision amid media reports that the government was apprehensive about sparking a culture-war-style campaign ahead of an election likely to be called within nine months.

The United Kingdom added an optional question on sexual orientation in its 2021 census for the first time.

  - Reuters