Australia’s 17th census, conducted in 2016, was the first since the exercise began in 1911 to offer respondents the option of self-classifying as ‘other’ than ‘male’ or ‘female’. A box was also provided in which the respondents could specify their previously unrecognised gender. In a statement released last June, the ABS said this enabled respondents to ‘record their sex in the way each thought appropriate’ and would enable the ABS to ‘expand the Standard Classification of Sex and Gender’.