CENSUS

Census 2006
Census 2006 happens next Tuesday night right across Australia.There are a couple of important things to consider if you're in a same-sex relationship, especially if you have children. It's all terribly confusing because Federally, our relationships are not recognised at all and non-birth mothers are not legally related to their own children! So, what do we answer for these questions? I've called the Census information line and here's what they've advised.

Question 5: What is the person's relationship to Person 1/Person 2?Definitely tick the De facto partner of Person 1/Person 2. Although we're not recognised Federally as de facto partners, the Census guidelines do include same-sex couples in their de facto definition.

Question 5: What is the person's relationship to Person 1/Person 2? (in relation to children)This one is a little more tricky. The choices you will have to select from in terms of your children are:
Child of both Person 1 and Person 2
Child of Person 1 only
Child of Person 2 only
Brother or sister of Person 1
Unrelated flatmate or co-tenant of Person 1 - please specifyIf you select Child of Person 1 (or 2) only, your family will be counted as being a step-parent family. If you select Child of both Person 1 and Person 2, your family will be counted the same as any other family with two parents.


The above is from a post at http://themuriels.blogspot.com and shows the difficulties of being a same-sex family when bureaucracy is involved.