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QUALITY DECLARATION - SUMMARY

INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT

For information on the institutional environment of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), including the legislative obligations of the ABS, financing and governance arrangements, and mechanisms for scrutiny of ABS operations, please see ABS Institutional Environment.

RELEVANCE

Each year in October the ABS conducts individual state specific surveys as part of the Monthly Population Survey (MPS) program. Water and Energy Use and Conservation was the October 2009 State Supplementary Survey topic for Queensland (Qld).

The survey collected data across all of Queensland on selected household usage of water and energy such as swimming pools, irrigation watering systems, air conditioning and hot water systems. Also collected were data on sources of water and energy for the household, as well as data on insulation, whitegoods and televisions, all of which have implications for resource use. As such, survey results may provide further understanding of the environmental impact of Queensland households.
 
Another environmental component of the survey was public transport use by persons in the household. Data items included whether or not public transport was used, how often it was usually used and reasons why public transport was used or not used. Public transport data were only collected for Brisbane.

The survey reference (or recall) period for individual questions varied.

TIMELINESS

The Queensland Water and Energy Use and Conservation survey was conducted as a supplement to the monthly Labour Force Survey throughout Queensland during the two weeks commencing 11 October 2009.

ACCURACY

Information for the Queensland Water and Energy Use and Conservation survey was sought from 4,230 households in private dwellings. Of these households, 96.8% fully responded to the survey.

Two types of error can occur in estimates that are based on a sample survey: non-sampling error and sampling error. Relative standard errors (RSEs) are a measure of sampling error and every data cell has an RSE associated with it. Where there are high RSEs associated with data cells, they will be indicated by single and double asterisks in tables or as comments in data cubes. For further information please refer to the Glossary, Explanatory Notes, or Technical Note.

COHERENCE

The Queensland Water and Energy Use and Conservation survey is not part of the ongoing ABS Monthly Population Survey program. Extreme caution must be used when comparing the 2009 survey with other related publications as different methodologies have been used.

The ABS has been conducting surveys related to the topic of Water and Energy Use and Conservation on an irregular basis. Previous ABS surveys related to Water and Energy Use and Conservation used a variety of sampling methods, estimation methods, concepts, data item definitions and classifications. These include:

• Australia's Environment: Issues and Trends, Jan 2010, cat. no. 4613.0
• Environmental Issues: Waste Management and Transport Use, Mar 2009, cat. no. 4602.0.55.002
• Environmental Issues: Energy Use and Conservation, Mar 2008, cat. no. 4602.0.55.001
• Environmental Views and Behaviour, 2007-08, cat. no. 4626.0.55.001
• Environmental Issues: People's Views and Practices, Mar 2007, cat. no. 4602.0

• main features, which include commentary, tables and graphs
• data cubes which present a variety of data items.