National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey (NATSISS)

NAME OF ORGANISATION
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)

OVERVIEW

The Australian Bureau of Statistics conducted the 2002 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey (NATSISS) between August 2002 and April 2003. The 2008 NATSIS was conducted between August 2008 and April 2009. The survey provides information about the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations of Australia for a wide range of areas of social concern including health, education, culture and labour force participation. The 2008 NATSISS included for the first time children aged under 15. The NATSISS will be conducted every 6 years to enable changes over time to be monitored.

The NATSISS builds on past ABS surveys and complements these collections, notably the 1994 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Survey (NATSIS) and 2002 and 2006 General Social Survey (GSS). It was developed in consultation with a wide range of stakeholders such as Commonwealth and State/Territory government bodies, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), Land Councils and research agencies. Individuals in both non-remote and remote areas were involved in focus groups and field testing to ensure the questions were relevant and culturally appropriate.

Information was collected by personal interview from approximately 10,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 15 years and over throughout Australia, including those living in remote areas. Up to three randomly selected Indigenous people were chosen from selected households to participate in the survey. Trained ABS interviewers conducted the survey using face-to-face interviews. In non-remote areas interviewers used a notebook computer to record responses, while in remote areas a paper questionnaire was used. Interviewers obtained the consent of a parent or guardian before interviewing those aged 15 to 17 years.

PURPOSE

The ABS has recognised that there is a user need for a range of statistics to monitor the well-being of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population. Throughout 1998 and 1999, ABS conducted extensive consultation with a range of users in developing the Indigenous Survey Strategy. Based on this consultation, a broad survey strategy has been developed to deliver a variety of statistics to inform public policy and programs in areas such as health, housing, education, employment and social and cultural well-being. The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey (NATSISS) is a central focus of this strategy and was conducted in conjunction with the General Social Survey (GSS) of all Australians.

The NATSISS collects a broad range of information in one survey, which provides a better picture of many aspects of the well-being of Indigenous Australians. This will assist both the Indigenous and the wider community in policy analysis and program development aimed at providing services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

The objectives of the NATSISS were to collect data that:

• provide broad information across key areas of social concern;
• explore the extent of participation in society and the barriers to that participation;
• allow for inter-relationships between different areas of social concern to be explored and provide insight into the extent to which people face multiple social disadvantage;
• provide comparisons with the non-Indigenous population through the General Social Survey and other surveys;
• provide previously unavailable information at the National and State/Northern Territory and broad regional levels; and
• measure change over the last 8 years through comparison with the 1994 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Survey.

The survey includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 15 years and over who are usual residents in selected private dwellings. Visitors to private dwellings were excluded, as were persons in institutions (such as hospitals and nursing homes) and special dwellings (such as hotels and boarding houses). The 2008 NATSISS included children aged under 15 years.

The following persons were excluded from the scope of the survey:

• Non-Indigenous persons;
• Short-term visitors (i.e. those staying for less than one month);
• Non-Australian diplomatic staff and non-Australian members of their households;
• Members of non-Australian defence forces stationed in Australia and their dependents;
• Overseas visitors (i.e. people whose usual place of residence is outside Australia); and
• People in Special Dwellings.

The NATSISS was conducted in urban, rural and remote areas across Australia.

DATA DETAIL

Conceptual framework

Not applicable

Main outputs

Most NATSISS data is available at the person level for persons aged 15 years and over and in the 2008 NATSISS children aged under 15. Some items are also available at the household level. Timeseries data will be available for most items when the 2008 NATSISS has been output. Some items may be compared with similar data collected from NATSIS 1994, GSS 2002 and other ABS household surveys.

Data available from the survey include: