AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS

1

• AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS
• Dennis Trewin
• Australian Statistician

2

• ABOUT THE ABS
• National statistical agency (Federal and State
• governments)
• Founded 1905
• About 3000 staff
• A mostly centralised statistical system
• Central Office Canberra
• Regional offices each State/Territory capital

3

• FUNCTIONS OF THE ABS
• Collect, compile, analyse and disseminate
  statistics
• Coordination of statistical activities
• Statistical standards
• Technical advice on statistics
• International liaison

4

• MAJOR OBJECTIVE OF THE ABS
• An expanded and improved national
  statistical service

5

• NATIONAL STATISTICAL SERVICE RECOGNISES
• There are other important players in the
• NSS (eg AIHW)
• Importance of other players more likely to
• increase than decrease
• Increased use of administrative/transactional
• data is a priority

6

• THE NSS WILL DEVELOP COHESION THROUGH
• Information Development Plans (IDP) that spell
  out the
• data needs, the data that are available, the
  gaps and
• the roles and responsibilities of all the
  stakeholders
• A Directory of Statistical Sources
• Collaboration between the major statistical
  producers
• Comparable good quality data using common
  definitions,
• classifications for common variables, and
  sound
• methodologies
• ABS support to ensure statistical work is of a
  good
• standard eg networks, workshops, guidelines,
  manuals,
• consultancy services
• Developing a NSS brand

7

• HEALTH IS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF NSS
• Several providers of statistical services (eg
  ABS,
• AIHW, Commonwealth/State Health Departments)
• IDPs for Health, Indigenous Health and Public
  Health
• under National Health Information Agreement
• Agreement on classifications, definitions that
• should be used
• Development of CATI instrument for common use
• Publication of Australias Health by AIHW
• consolidates a lot of health information from
  the
• various providers

8

• THE ABSs ROLE IN HEALTH STATISTICS
• Population Census
• Basic demographic measures
• Population Surveys (National Health Survey
  Disability,
• Ageing and Carers General Social Survey,
  etc)
• Support for Australian Health Measurement
  Survey
• Business Surveys (Private Hospitals and Day
  Care Facilities,
• Medical Practitioners, Allied Professionals,
  etc)
• Tax databases to support longitudinal and other
  analysis

9

• THE ABSs ROLE IN HEALTH STATISTICS (Contd)
• Cause of death statistics
• Support for classifications/standards (eg
  ICD10, ICF,
• occupation, qualifications, etc)
• Publishing activities (publications, web, data
  cubes, atlases)
• Analytical products (establishment of ageing
  unit)
• Collaborative activities
• Information consultancies

10

• INDIGENOUS STATISTICS A SPECIAL FOCUS
• National Centre for Aboriginal and Torres
  Strait
• Islander Statistics
• Indigenous Health Survey, Indigenous Social
  Survey,
• Community and Housing Infrastructure Needs
  Survey
• Improving Indigenous identification
  (particularly in
• administrative system)
• Analytical products
• Support for those addressing Indigenous issues

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• CONCLUSION
• Health is an important issue regarded as No. 1
  by
• Australian people and significant government
  expenditure
• Significant health inequalities between/within
  countries
• WHO is not a significant player in the
  international
• statistical community
• UNSC requested WHO to strengthen
  coordination
• of its statistical programme with the
  involved
• international organisations and
  countries.
• Significant criticism of WHO statistical
  activities by
• developing countries
• Question should the role of the collaborating
  centres
• extend beyond the focus on classification
  issues?