Performance information

The Commonwealth Performance Framework, established under the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013, encompasses a cycle of performance planning, monitoring and reporting. The Portfolio Budget Statements (PBS) and Corporate Plan are our key forward planning publications and outline how we will measure and assess our performance. The Annual Report is our main reporting publication and provides the assessment of our performance and achievements.

The ABS Enterprise Performance Framework outlines our approach to meeting our legislative requirements, the Commonwealth Performance Framework and other guidance material.

We regularly review our performance measures to ensure they reflect our purpose and remain relevant and appropriate. The changes made to performance information for this Corporate Plan are detailed in the changes to performance measures page.  

Our data informs important decisions made by government, business and the community. It underpins sound fiscal and monetary policy decisions and informs the delivery of programs and services vital to the health and wellbeing of the people of Australia. Our data also supports a functioning democracy, contributing to fair electoral boundaries and informed community debate.

It is crucial that we uphold an exceptional level of trust in both our institution and the statistics and insights we offer. This trust is essential for maintaining high response rates, ensuring our statistics are of high quality and reflective of the Australian society and economy and we remain the main source of data for Australia’s important decisions.

Compliance with international standards set by an independent body (in this instance the International Monetary Fund) supports a high degree of trust in the quality and impartiality of our statistics, along with the ability to confidently compare Australia’s results to international comparators. 

Meeting the standards also reflects the timeliness with which we publish specific statistics. The use of our statistics to inform important government, business and household decisions is demonstrated through the regular use by government of these statistics.

Alignment

PBS 2025–26 - Program 1.1 (page 71)

Information from the Census helps governments, businesses and not-for-profit organisations across the country make informed decisions. The Census provides accurate population estimates for Australia in each state, territory and local government area. It informs decisions on electoral boundaries and underpins funding to states, territories and local governments. It informs decisions for services and infrastructure such as roads, childcare, hospitals and schools for every community in Australia. The Census is also a vital tool for a myriad of investment decisions made by businesses across all sectors of the economy and is used by community groups to inform support for some of the most vulnerable people in Australia.

Measurement of access to our data and statistics indicates the level of interest, demand and usage. There are five key channels for media, academics, government and the public to access our data. The increasing use of these data sources combined indicates a growth in trust in our data by stakeholders and the public. 

Measurement of the use of these channels allows us to assess how different groups interact with our data. Different users come to us for a variety of reasons; the information they seek to address their needs can be as simple as a single number, or as complex as statistical analysis. 

We lead the use of public data for statistical purposes and work to improve the Australian Government’s data and statistical capabilities. We achieve this, in part, by providing secure data management and data sharing capabilities to support the Australian Government and state and territory governments to make better use of their data.

The Secure Environment for Analysing Data (SEAD) was designed to meet demand for secure cloud-based data access services across the Australian Government, facilitating policy and research outcomes. Measuring the adoption of SEAD services gives insight into how we support the capability uplift across other official bodies by enabling them to make better use of their data.

We are leading the APS Data Profession, with the Australian Statistician as the Head of Profession. The Data Profession aims to uplift the data capability of the APS workforce through defining data capabilities, creating career pathways and providing access to development opportunities. The Profession aims to ensure the APS workforce can attract, develop and retain the data capabilities needed to harness the unprecedented growth in the availability and use of data. 

We are actively pursuing innovative solutions to make the collection of statistical information more efficient for the agency, as well as less burdensome for data providers. Although multiple initiatives are currently being pursued, the Whole of Australian Government Coding Service will deliver efficiencies through automated and standardised coding, reducing the inputs needed to produce its increasingly diverse suite of high-quality statistical products. 

A principal objective with data providers is to impose the lowest level of burden possible whilst meeting our obligations to offer government and the community high-quality official statistics. We frequently review data collection methods to ensure we collect information efficiently and are increasing the use of admin data, including data collected by government and businesses, to reduce the need to conduct surveys.

This performance measure demonstrates our priority to reduce provider burden and deliver on the commitment made to the Australian Government in 2020–21 to reduce total hours of respondent burden.