| |
A MESSAGE FROM THE REGIONAL DIRECTOR
Since the September 1998 issue there have been a number of changes to the ACT Office and also statistical developments which have been highlighted in this issue of ABStract:
- Firstly we have a new Assistant Regional Director. John Connor has moved to the ACT Office from the Public Finance area of the ABS. John brings with him a wealth of experience in the public finance field and economic statistics generally. Some of you will have met John already, and received assistance from him. I welcome John to his new position, and welcome the depth of experience in the economic statistics field which John brings to the ACT Office.
- Secondly the ACT Office is on the move! Current accommodation is unsuitable and we will be moving to Central Office at Belconnen, or to another site in Civic if a suitable site can be found. This move is currently being planned for June 1999.
- The ACT Office presented its annual report and raised several issues for discussion at senior management level, including the impact of various ABS reviews and government policy initiatives on statistical services being provided to the smaller States and Territories.
- Submissions for the October 1999 ACT State Supplementary Survey have been received from ACT Government Departments and an assessment process is currently underway.
- The assistance of ACT Government Departments in the review of the ABS Household Survey Program is appreciated. Work is now under way to develop more specific proposals based in input received from all Commonwealth, State and Territory government agencies.
- The working group on Indigenous Identification in Administrative data collections met on 9 December 1998. Tony Barnes from ABS NCATSIS attended as a guest speaker and spoke about the latest ABS papers on indigenous identification. An ACT response to one of the discussion papers was an action item arising from this meeting.
- Data collection for the project looking at the quality of indigenous identification in hospital separation records at Canberra and Calvary hospitals is now complete. A report is expected to be available early in March/April 1999.
If you require additional information or background papers on the above topics, please contact me on (02) 6207 0283. I also encourage you to contact me on areas where the ABS can improve its service or provide further assistance.
Dalma Jacobs
Regional Director
ACT Office, Australian Bureau of Statistics
RECENT MAJOR RELEASES
(excluding regular monthly and quarterly releases)
This listing shows ABS publications that have been released over the past 3 months. For release details of regular (monthly and quarterly) publications, please refer to Release Advice (ABS Cat 1105.0) issued to subscribers each Tuesday and Friday, or 1102.0 issued monthly.
General
| 1329.0 | Australia's Wine and Grape Industry, 1998 (Dec) |
Census of Population and Housing
| 2033.0.30.001 | 1996 Census of Population and Housing: Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA), Australia (& also for each State and Territory) (Oct) |
Demography and Social Statistics
| 3301.0 | Births, Australia, 1997 (Nov) |
| 3302.0 | Deaths, Australia, 1997 (Dec) |
| 3311.8 | Demography, ACT, 1997 (Dec) |
| 4123.8 | ACT's Young People, 1996 (Dec) |
| 4153.0 | How Australians Use Their Time, 1997 (Dec) |
| 4177.0 | Participation in Sport and Physical Activity, Australia, 1997-98 (Oct) |
| 4315.0 | Apparent Consumption of Foodstuffs, Australia, 1997-98 (Nov) |
| 4359.0 | How Australians Measure Up (Oct) |
Economic Statistics
| 5501.0 | Government Financial Estimates, Australia, 1998-99 (Nov) |
| 5506.0 | Taxation Revenue, Australia, 1997-98 (Dec) |
| 5513.0 | Public Sector Financial Assets and Liabilities, June 1998 (Nov) |
Labour Statistics
| 6101.0 | Labour Statistics, Australia, 1998 (Dec) |
Business and Industry
| 7217.0 | Directory of Agricultural Statistics, 1998 (Oct) |
| 8221.1 | Manufacturing, NSW and ACT, 1996-97 (Nov) |
| 8225.0 | Manufacturing, Australia, 1996-97 (Dec) |
| 8679.0 | Film and Video Production and Distribution, Australia, 1996-97(Nov) |
| 8680.0 | Radio and Television Services, Australia, 1996-97 (Nov) |
| 8697.0 | Performing Arts Industry, Australia, 1996-97 (Oct) |
| 8698.0 | Waste Management Industry, Australia, 1996-97 (Nov) |
| 9309.0 | Motor Vehicle Census, Australia, Oct 1997 (Oct) |
Collections
The third meeting of this working group was held in 9 December 1998.
The hospital project was discussed. The purpose of this project is to develop, pilot, evaluate and document a data quality control procedure for assessing the completeness of Indigenous identification in hospital separation records. The survey has been completed and a report is being prepared for the Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Council (AHMAC) in March 1999. For more information about this project please contact Barbara Gray 08 89432 147 or barbara.gray@abs.gov.au.
Barry McCarthy from the ACT Registrar General's Office advised he has visited local funeral directors explaining the new procedures and the purpose of collecting indigenous data. He has followed this up by distributing a brochure produced by the ABS to remind funeral directors of the importance of their contribution to improving the quality of indigenous administrative data.
New Birth and Death registrations forms were introduced in June 1998. Initial indications are that there is a high response rate to the Indigenous question. It was decided that there would be a quality audit of ACT births and deaths data, with deaths being audited before births. For births it was decided to wait (approximately) six months to see if the new birth registration form increased coverage before verifying with a secondary source.
For deaths, three methods were suggested for the audit:
1. An administrative audit. Follow the administrative process from the first to the last step.
2. Look at how the data is captured, how forms completed (difficult considering the traumatic circumstances).
3. Check with a secondary source. Tap into knowledge within the community (for example: known deaths within a period), and cross reference with indigenous information on the Registry database.
One option discussed was a combination of items 1 and 3 for the purposes of the audit.
Tony Barnes from the ABS NCATSIS unit attended as a guest speaker and introduced the latest ABS papers on indigenous identification:
Directions in Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Statistics,
Plan for Improving Indigenous Statistics from Administrative Collections, and
A Proposed Survey Strategy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Statistics.
Tony covered issues such as increased Indigenous identification for the 1996 Census, the potential use of Indigenous community leaders as respondents in Indigenous surveys and contributed to discussions about the quality audit of ACT births and deaths data.
Action items arising from this meeting included the need for an ACT response the discussion paper A Proposed Survey Strategy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Statistics. The next meeting is to be held in March/April 1999.
Introduction of Chain Volume Measures
Chain volume measures have been introduced in the Australian National Accounts. The recent review of the National Accounts, SNA93, included a recommendation that annually-reweighted chain volume measures be compiled to aid the analysis of economic statistics. SNA93 argued that chain volume measures provide better indicators of volume growth than constant price estimates for most economic statistics relating to expenditure and production.
ABS studies have shown that annually reweighted chain volume measures would have had a substantial impact on the growth in volume of some important components of expenditure on GDP, notable private gross fixed capital expenditure on equipment and imports. (although these effects were largely off-setting and the change would have had little impact on the growth in volume of Australia's GDP).
For example unlike constant price estimates used previously, annually linked and reweighted chain volume measures allow for changes to the prices of computer equipment relative to the prices of other goods and services. It is the price relativities that determine the weight given to each component of a volume index. Accordingly as computer equipment prices have fallen relative to other goods and services, chain volume measures would be able to take account of these changes in price relativity.
Full details of the issues associated with chaining are outlined in Information Paper: Introduction of Chain Volume Measures in the Australian National Accounts (Cat. no. 5248.0).
NEW RELEASES
Demography, ACT, 1997 (3311.8)
This publication provides a comprehensive demographic overview of the ACT. It contains tables and commentary on ACT trends in population, births, deaths, marriages, divorces, and migration. Components of population change, estimated resident population and various demographic rates are reported, and comparisons are made across States and Territories. Selected statistics are presented for Statistical Local Areas.
Census of Population and Housing: Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA), Australia (2033.030.001)
SEIFA96 is a first issue which provides lifestyle groupings of Australia's communities based on data from the 1996 Census. There are five indexes which group Australians according to their social and economic conditions. These are:
Urban Index of Advantage
Rural Index of Advantage
Index of Disadvantage
Index of Economic Resources
Index of Education and Occupation
SEIFA96 provides information and rankings for a wide range of geographic areas from small areas such as Collection District (an area made up of approximately 200 households), Postal Areas, Local Government Areas and Statistical Local Areas to large areas such as Statistical Subdivisions.
SEIFA96 is available as a stand-alone electronic product which contains the indexes and a fully documented software package which facilitates the manipulation of the indexes and as an add-on module for use with CDATA96. This product is separately available for each State and Australia.
ACT's Young People, 1996 (4123.8)
This publication provides a range of statistics on the ACT's young people. Compiled mainly from 1996 Census data, the profile includes sections on population, cultural diversity, living arrangements, education, working life and income.
How Australians Use Their Time, 1997 (4153.0)
This publication contains a selection of mainly national level data on time spent in paid work, unpaid household work and shopping, caring for children and frail, sick and disabled people, community participation, education, leisure and personal maintenance, by usual residents of private households aged 15 years and above.
Participation in Sport and Physical Activity, Australia, 1997-98 (4177.0)
This publication contains details on the number and characteristics of people who participate in a range of sport and physical activities at national and State level, by age, sex, and frequency of participation.
Earlier editions contained expenditure data for individual sport and physical activities, and participation by children aged 5-14 in school organised and club organised activities, by age and State.
Motor Vehicles Census, Australia, Oct 1997 (9309.0)
This publication presents, for each State and Territory, the number of vehicles on register by type of vehicle (passenger vehicles, light commercial vehicles, rigid trucks, articulated trucks, non-freight carrying trucks, buses and motor cycles), year of manufacture, make, gross vehicle mass, fuel type and average age of vehicle.
Manufacturing, NSW and ACT, 1996-97 (8221.1)
The final results from the 1996-97 Manufacturing Survey are presented in the publication. Included are details of employment; wages and salaries, turnover, and industry gross product classified by Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification class for NSW. Also included are data classified by employment size and data relating to exports for NSW manufacturers; as well as employment; wages and salaries, turnover, and industry gross product data for the ACT at the industry subdivision level. For NSW, this publication also shows employment, wages and salaries and turnover for Statistical Divisions.
Radio and Television Services, Australia, 1996-97 (8680.0)
This publication contains information about the radio and television services industries. The data include: major sources of income and components of expenditure; characteristics of employment; key characteristics by State; performance ratios; and selected commodity details such as type of programming format and production costs.
Performing Arts Industry, Australia, 1996-97 (8697.0)
This publication contains detailed information about the performing arts industry in Australia. It includes sources of income and expenditure, characteristics of employment and persons working, business size analysis, State and Territory data, as well as a range of performance ratios for the industry.
EXPECTED MAJOR RELEASES
(excluding regular monthly and quarterly releases)
This listing shows ABS publications which are expected to be released over the coming quarter, the expected month of release is shown in brackets.
General
| 1101.0 | Catalogue of Publications and Products, 1999 (Feb) |
| 1132.0 | Directory of Transport Statistics, 1998 (Jan) |
| 1301.0 | Year Book, Australia, 1999 (Feb) |
| 1302.0 | Pocket Year Book, Australia, 1999 (Feb) |
| 1309.0 | Australia at a Glance, 1999 (Feb) |
| 8152.0 | Year 2000 Problem, Australia, Oct 1998 (Jan) |
Demography and Social Statistics
| 1313.8 | Regional Statistics, ACT, 1999 (Mar) |
| 1365.8 | Public Transport Usage and Migration Patterns, ACT, October 1998 (Mar) |
| 3218.0 | Regional Population Growth, Australia, 1997-98 (Jan) |
| 3303.0 | Causes of Death, Australia, 1997 (Jan) |
| 3412.0 | Migration, Australia, 1997-98 (Feb) |
| 4119.0 | Children, Australia: A Social Report, 1998 (Jan) |
| 4220.0 | Schools, Australia, 1999 (Jan) |
| 4224.0 | Education and Training, Australia, 1998 (Jan) |
| 4327.0 | National Survey of Mental Health and Well-being of Adults: User's Guide, 1997 (Jan) |
| 4335.0 | Health Insurance Survey, Australia, June 1998 (Mar) |
| 4377.0 | National Health Survey: Uses of Medications, Australia, 1995 (Jan) |
| 4708.0 | Occasional Paper: Population Issues, Indigenous Australians, 1996 (Feb) |
Economic Statistics
| 4603.0 | Environment Protection Expenditure, Australia, 1995-96 and 96-97 (Mar) |
| 5204.0 | Australian System of National Accounts, 1997-98 (Feb) |
| 5672.0 | Information Paper: Expanding the Use of ATO Data to Improve ABS Economic Statistics (Oct) |
| 6422.0 | Information Paper: Producer Price Index Developments, 1997-98 (Feb) |
| 6440.0 | A Guide to the Consumer Price index, 1998 (Jan) |
Labour Statistics
| 6245.0 | Successful and Unsuccessful Job Search Experience, Australia, Jul 1998 (Jan) |
| 6265.0 | Underemployed Workers, Australia, Sep 1998 (Mar) |
| 6286.0.30.001 | Australia's Employment and Unemployment Patterns, Unit Record File, Sep 1994 to Sep 1997 (Jan) |
| 6292.0.45.00 | Labour Force, Revised Seasonally Adjusted and Trend Data, Australia, Feb 1998 (Mar) |
| 6306.0 | Employee Earnings and Hours, Australia, May 1998 (Mar) |
| 6307.0 | Employee Earnings and Hours, States and Australia - Data Service, May 1998 (Mar) |
Business and Industry
| 1275.0 | Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) - Concepts, Sources and Methods, 1999 (Feb) |
| 4144.0 | Business Sponsorship, Australia, 1996-97 (Jan) |
| 7506.0 | Agricultural Industries, Financial Statistics, Australia, 1997-98 (Jan) |
| 8132.0.45.001 | Business Register Consultancy - Management Units, Sep 1998 (Jan) |
| 8140.0 | Business Operation and Industry Performance, Australia, 1996-97 (Mar) |
| 8140.0.40.002 | Summary of Industry Performance, 1996-97 (Jan) |
| 8145.0 | Telecommunication Services, Australia, 1996-97 (Jan) |
| 8201.0 | Manufacturing Industry, Australia, 1997-98 (Mar) |
| 8401.0 | Mining, Electricity and Gas Operation, Australia, 1997-98 (Feb) |
| 8772.0 | Private Sector Construction Industry, Australia, 1996-97 (Jan) |
| 9312.0.30.001 | Transtats, Australia on CD-ROM (Nov) |
ENTRY POINTS TO THE ABS ACT OFFICE
| National Dial a Statistic line | 1900 986 400 |
(for main economic indicators other than CPI)
| (75c per minute) |
 | |
| CPI Information line | 1902 981 074 |
| (75c per minute) |
| Information Inquiries: | |
|
| 02 6252 6627 |
|
| 02 6207 0282 |
| |
| Bookshop and Client Service Centre | 9th Floor, FAI House |
| 197 London Cct |
| CANBERRA CITY 2601 |
| |
| Postal Address: | PO Box 10 |
| BELCONNEN ACT 2616 |
| |
| Internet Web Site Address: | www.abs.gov.au |
| |
| Regional Director: Dalma Jacobs | 02 6207 0283 |
| |
| Assistant Regional Director: John Connor | 02 6207 0244 |
| |
| Bookshop and Information Services Manager: Nives Marelic | 02 6207 0326 |
| |
| Statistical Services Manager: Will Blythe | 02 6205 0032 |
| |
| Population Census Inquiries: Bill Syms | 02 6207 0285 |
|
This page first published 31 October 2000, last updated 30 November 2004 |
