There has been a push from the Statistics Minister to have information on gender identity and sexual orientation included in the census.
James Shaw has written to the Chief Statistician to make clear he expects work to have these in the 2023 census to be a priority.
The Green Party leader says that when he took the portfolio following the change of government it was too late to include questions in this year's census, but he wanted work to gather pace to include questions in the 2023 version.
From the age of 12, Mr Shaw was raised by two women after his mother Cynthia began a relationship with a fellow teacher.
He says it's important the census reflects the country's diversity, and that being seen and counted matters to the Rainbow community.
"I remember when I was in high school - I know teenagers are horrible to each other about everything - but people were kind of mean about the fact I came from a same-sex family.
"Gathering this kind of information in these surveys – the census and other surveys – and getting that information out there just helps to normalise that this is who we are as a country.
"And it helps bring down those walls of discrimination, and bullying and stigma. People in the rainbow community have been feeling marginalised by the absence of this kind of data-gathering."
Mr Shaw says he was disappointed questions couldn't be included in this year's census.
"And I know the chief statistician [Liz MacPherson] is very disappointed. They put work into it but they couldn't get it over the line. I think that she and I feel very keenly that this, in many ways, is about continuing to normalise this community - and people like my parents."
As an interim option in this year's census, people who want to indicate their biological sex is neither male nor female will be able to request a paper form and mark both "male" and "female".
Ms MacPherson has previously said the decision not to include questions on sexual orientation and gender identity was made for purely statistical reasons.
New questions in this year's census include whether a person's home is damp or mouldy.
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