1344.8.55.002 - ABStract, Statistics News, Australian Capital Territory, April 2011  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 13/04/2011  Final
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THE DIRECTOR'S CUT


WELCOME TO THE LAST ISSUE OF ABSTRACT!

In an effort for all the regional offices to work together better we decided to combine our efforts to produce one newsletter rather than 8. Given that much of the content was common across the States, the Regional Directors thought this was a great opportunity to work cooperatively and place greater efforts into assisting State and Territory Governments in the use of data. In Upcoming Changes under ACT Statistical Publications addresses this issue outlining our plans for a newsletter for all States and Territories as well as the future of the joint State and Territory indicator publication.

Other than that there most important Statistical event for this year is the Census of Population and Housing on August 9. The recruitment of Area Supervisors has been highly successful - we had almost 10 times as many applicants as positions and this enabled us to recruit some extraordinary people to undertake this important work. We hope that many of the high quality applicants that have not won an Area Supervisors will consider being Census collectors. High quality collectors and area supervisors are the backbone of a successful census and so we are well on track to run a very good census in the ACT.

The ACT Office was out talking to young people at the Youth Expo in Garema Place on 1 April. We met some wonderful young people who were excited about filling in their first Census as an adult and even being collectors. One even gave the staff of the ACT Office a short but accurate history lesson on the taking of Censuses in Australia! Our challenge now is to spread this enthusiasm to other young people in the ACT in order to improve the count of this important part of our community,

We are also very keen to encourage everyone in the ACT to fill their Census in online. For the 2006 Census two-thirds more Canberrans filled their Census in online than the National average. With a heavy promotion campaign for the 2011 Census to encourage people to fill their form in online it is hoped that the ACT can have similar success this time around.

The other major statistical event this year is the Australian Health Survey. This is a very exciting survey as it is collecting new information that will greatly assist the development of health policy in Australia. There is also a voluntary collection of biomedical information.

Stephen Collett

ACT Regional Director

Stephen Collett - ACT office Regional Director
Diagram: Stephen Collett Regional Director