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Moving to the 2026 census, Katy Gallagher was asked about comments from some of Australia’s major health institutions who say data on gender diverse Australians will be critical to inform care.
Is that something the government will consider, given that this is the advice from a lot of major health bodies?
It is, as you say, really important and it’s no surprise that health groups are saying that because, you know, it informs future health policy and identifies gaps and responses.
But the PM has already said there will be questions. We need to work with people about what those questions are and we’ll be doing that, but I’m very positive there’ll be a good outcome here.
You can see that from this data. You can see that household consumption, particularly on discretionary spending [which has] really declined substantially. I think that shows that household budgets are smashed and contributing to that, of course, is those 13 interest rate increases.
And the bank’s got a job to do to get inflation down, but we have also got a job to do to explain what we’re seeing in the economy and what we know is happening and that is that households are under huge pressure. So I think, you know, there’s been a lot said about this this week but it really is stating the facts and [that] played out for all to see in the national accounts yesterday.
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