'Truth, not noise': ambassador backs gender data

Australia's ambassador for gender equality has backed continued investment in gender data collection to inform policies, combat misinformation and improve the lives of women and girls.

Ambassador Michelle O'Byrne is attending the United Nations 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women as part of the Australian delegation.

The two-week conference held in New York is exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality as well as the rights and the empowerment of women.

Ms O'Byrne was appointed ambassador in August 2025, after serving as the federal Labor member for Bass from 1998 to 2004 and then as the state member for Bass in the Tasmanian parliament from 2006 to 2025.

At a UN Women event held on the sidelines of CSW, Ms O'Byrne said Australia chose to invest in gender data collection to ensure governments had evidence to drive better decisions and outcomes.

"Policy makers simply cannot plan, cannot target resource solution, cannot measure progress without a really complete and accurate picture of who is being reached and who is being left behind," she said on Wednesday local time.

"High quality gender and disability inclusive data is essential because ... it ensures that women, girls, people with disabilities, are counted (and) it recognises that progress requires visibility."

UN Women is celebrating ten years of the Women Count programme which was aimed at transforming gender data systems around the world.

Gender data collection was more important than ever in 2026, the ambassador said, as the world faced compounding challenges marked by uncertainty.

"At a time when misinformation and disinformation in really simple narratives can distort public debate, gender data allows us to ground our choices in evidence," she said.

"It anchors public policy in truth and not noise."

For too long, outdated data collection practices had meant women were excluded from policies and programs that could benefit them, UN Women deputy executive director Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda said.

"It is very clear that for us to shape and reform policies and norms and laws, we need the data," she said.

"(Parliamentarians) need evidence, they need data in order to shift norms and laws and policies to strengthen institutions."