LGBTIQ+ Health Australia (LHA) today congratulates Prime Minister and Assistant Minister Andrew Leigh, who is responsible for the Census, for demonstrating strong leadership by listening to experts, swiftly considering the advice and deciding to include a new topic on gender and sexual orientation in the 2026 Census.

Joint Statement in support of the inclusion of three new topics on gender, variations of sex characteristics, and sexual orientation variables into the 2026 Census

The Albanese Government’s decision that it will not include questions counting LGBTIQ+ Australians in the 2026 Census (as reported by Sky News) shows a shameful lack of commitment to addressing the health and wellbeing disparities experienced by LGBTIQ+ people. This will have a lasting negative impact on people’s lives for many years.

Older people are urging a bipartisan approach from the Federal Government and Opposition to urgently introduce a new rights based Aged Care Act.

LGBTIQ+ Health Australia (LHA) provided comments on the exposure draft of the new Aged Care Act (the Act). As a human-rights based aged care legislative framework, it promises significant improvements for older people receiving Government-funded aged care services.

The Federal Government must finally deliver a new Aged Care Act that protects and enforces the rights of older people, allows visitors in aged care at all times, and supports informal carers of older people without delay, organisations representing older people and carers say.

LGBTIQ+ Health Australia (LHA) today called for urgent responses across Australia on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other sexuality, gender, and bodily diverse people’s (LGBTQ+) mental health, responding to a new article, Mental health findings for LGBTQ+ Australians, from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) 2020-2022 National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing. 

LGBTIQ+ Health Australia (LHA) has called for urgent action to reduce harms associated with the use of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other sexuality, gender, and bodily diverse people (LGBTQ+), responding to new data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s (AIHW) National Drug Strategy Household Survey 2022-2023[1].

LGBTIQ+ Health Australia (LHA) has welcomed the release of new data providing a clearer picture on the risk of mental health, self-harm and suicide for LGBTIQ+ communities within the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) National Suicide and Self Harm Monitoring System and called for more work to include broader national data on LGBTIQ+ populations.

LHA firmly opposes harmful misinformation that endangers the lives and mental health of trans and gender diverse individuals. These unfounded claims perpetuate stigma and isolation, disregarding the overwhelming consensus within the medical and psychological communities.