23.10    The Australian Tourism Satellite Account (ATSA) is based on the international standards, Tourism Satellite Accounts: Recommended Methodological Framework, 2008 (TSA RMF) and International Recommendations for Tourism Statistics, 2008 (ITRS). 

23.11    Implicitly, tourism is included in the core Australian System of National Accounts. However, while all the products that are produced and consumed in meeting tourism demand are embedded in the core accounts, they are not readily apparent. This is because tourism is not identified as an industry in industrial statistical classifications. Industries are defined based on the goods and services produced. On the other hand, the tourism industry is defined according to the status of the consumer being a tourist.

23.12    The ATSA measures the direct impacts of tourism only. Indirect impacts are outside the scope of the ATSA; however, they are measured by Tourism Research Australia (TRA).

23.13    A direct impact occurs where there is a direct relationship (physical and economic) between a visitor and a producer of a good or service.

23.14    The central statistical entity in tourism statistics is the ''visitor''. The scope of tourism in the international standards comprises the activity of visitors. A visitor is defined as: a traveller taking a trip outside their usual environment, for less than a year, for any main purpose (business, leisure or other personal purpose) other than to be employed by a resident entity in the country or place visited.

23.15    If a person stays in the one place for longer than one year, their centre of economic and social interest is deemed to be in that place, so they no longer qualify as a visitor.

23.16    The following types of persons are not considered to be visitors:

• persons for whom travel is an intrinsic part of their job (e.g., bus driver, air crew);
• persons who travel for the purpose of being admitted to or detained in a residential facility such as a hospital, prison or long stay care;
• persons who are travelling as part of a move to a new permanent residence;
• persons who are undertaking military duties; and
• persons who are travelling between two parts of their usual environment.

23.17    Visitors can be classified into national and international visitors. 

• National/domestic visitors consist of Australian residents who travel outside their usual environment within Australia. They include both overnight visitors (staying one or more nights at a location and who travel over 40 km round trip) and same day visitors (travel over 50 km round trip). National/domestic visitors are split into the following categories:
  • Business/government:  Visitors travelling for business or government purposes. All expenses incurred during these trips are attributed to the business/government travel purpose, regardless of whether the expenditure is for business or personal reasons.
  • Household:  Visitors travelling for leisure and/or visiting family and friends.
• International
  • Visitors who travel to a country other than that in which they have their usual residence.

23.18    Tourism expenditure, purchasers’ prices (PP): The amount visitors pay for the acquisition of goods and services, for own use or to give away, for and during tourism trips. It includes expenditures by visitors themselves, as well as expenses that are paid for or reimbursed by others. (IRTS 2008, para. 4.2).

23.19    Tourism consumption, purchasers’ prices: Tourism consumption is broader in scope than expenditure. It includes imputations for the consumption by visitors of certain services for which they do not make an economically significant payment.  Imputed consumption in the Australian TSA include:

• Housing services provided by vacation homes on own account (imputed services of holiday homes deemed to be consumed by their visitor owners).
• Values of non-market services provided directly to visitors such as public museums or tourist information centres even though these may be provided free or at a price which is not economically significant.

23.20    Tourism output, basic prices (BP): The value of products produced that serve visitors before any taxes and margins on tourism products are added (or any subsidies on tourism products are deducted). Direct tourism output directly serves visitors, while indirect tourism output is produced by entities that do not maintain a direct relationship with tourists. 

23.21    Tourism gross value added (GVA): Tourism GVA is measured as the value of the output at basic prices of tourism products by industries in a direct relationship with visitors less the value of the intermediate inputs used in producing these tourism products.

23.22    Tourism net taxes on products: Taxes less subsidies that are levied on the sale or transfer of goods and services that are directly related to a transaction with a visitor. Downstream taxes on products such as import duties are not considered a direct tourism tax on products.

23.23    Tourism gross domestic product (GDP): Direct tourism GDP measures the sum of direct tourism GVA, plus direct taxes on products less direct subsidies on products associated with tourism expenditure. Direct tourism GDP is a thematic account construct to enable a comparison with the most widely recognised national accounting indicator, GDP.

23.24    Margins on tourism products: The output generated from delivering a product from the producer to the final consumer. 

23.25    Tourism imports: Domestic consumption of products in the visitor economy that are produced overseas. Amounts payable to non-residents for the provision of tourism services to residents is excluded from the tourism estimate.

23.26    Tourism employment: A job becomes a tourism-related job when it has a direct impact on tourism activity. A direct impact occurs where there is a direct relationship (physical and economic) between a visitor and the worker. Jobs can be measured as:

• The main job of a person: If a person is employed in multiple jobs only the main job is included.
• Filled jobs: This measure is based on the number of jobs held by people employed in main jobs as well as secondary jobs.

23.27    Inbound trips: Trips undertaken by a non-resident visitor to Australia. Only consumption within Australia is included in the TSA.

23.28    Outbound trips: Trips undertaken by Australian residents travelling to another country. Only consumption within Australia before and after the international trip is included in the TSA.

23.29    Balance of payments tourism related services credits are closely related to exports of tourism goods and services in the estimates of the value of domestically produced goods and services presented in the Tourism Consumption by Non-residents on Inbound Trips. The most significant differences occur because the Australian TSA excludes the expenditure of overseas students with a length of stay of greater than one year and non-resident to resident transactions which occur in other countries (e.g. for the delivery of services by Australian residents in other countries). 

23.30    In the context of the Australian TSA, a product is considered a country-specific tourism characteristic product if visitors consume at least 25% of its total output.

23.31    Tourism connected products are those that are consumed by visitors in significant amounts but are not considered as tourism characteristic products. All products that are not consumed by visitors in a significant amount are classified as 'all other goods and services' in the TSA.

23.32    These industries are defined as those that would either cease to exist in their current form or would be significantly impacted if tourism were to cease. 

23.33    In the context of the Australian TSA, an industry is considered a country-specific tourism characteristic industry if visitors consume at least 25% of its output. 

23.34    Tourism connected industries are those, other than tourism characteristic industries, for which a tourism related product is directly identifiable to it, and where the products are consumed by visitors in volumes which are significant for the visitor and/or the producer. All other industries are classified as 'all other industries', though some of their products may be consumed by visitors and are included in the calculation of direct tourism GVA and direct tourism GDP.

Domestic Tourism Statistics (DoTS)

23.35    Key use of data:  Informs domestic tourism expenditure at purchasers’ prices for Australian residents.

International Visitor Survey (IVS)

23.36    Key use of data:  Informs expenditure at purchasers’ prices for international visitors in Australia.

Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia

23.37    Key use of data:  Informs expenditure on airline services from resident entities and the value of education exports.

Australian System of National Accounts

23.38    Key use of data:  Informs whole of economy estimates for Australian production and GVA for direct comparison with tourism estimates.

Australian National Accounts: Input-Output Tables

23.39    Key use of data: Informs basic prices, margins, and taxes on products to purchasers’ price ratios.

Australian National Accounts: Supply Use Tables

23.40    Key use of data:

• Informs primary input to output calculations.
• Informs consumption of items where market prices are not available, for example the value of services offered by tourist information centres and public art galleries.
• Informs the industries producing each tourism product.

Economic Activity Survey (EAS)

23.41    Key use of data: Informs primary input to output calculations for industries where other data sources do not have sufficient detail.

Labour Account, Australia

23.42    Key use of data:

• Provides whole of economy employment estimates by industry.
• Provides whole of economy hours worked by industry.

Labour Force, Australia 

23.42    Key use of data:

• Informs male/female and part-time/full-time job ratios.

Overseas arrivals and departures (OAD)

23.43    Key use of data:

• Used in calculating the average spend per international visitor.
• Informs calculations for consumption of items where market prices are not available.  

Deriving tourism output at purchasers’ prices

23.43    Estimates of tourism expenditure are provided via the DoTS and IVS, with some exceptions. As the DoTS replaced the National Visitor Survey (NVS) in 2025, the NVS data has been used to backcast DoTS data to the start of the time series, based on movements in expenditure by category, by trip purpose and total expenditure. 

23.44    Data for airfare and education expenditure by international visitors is obtained from balance of payments while the purchase of motor vehicles by domestic visitors is modelled using a range of sources and assumptions. In addition, information from the national accounts is used to derive consumption estimates for goods and services provided to visitors at discounted prices or for free.

23.45    Tourism output at purchasers’ prices is derived for international visitors, and domestic visitors split by household and business/government.

Deriving tourism output at basic prices

23.46    National accounts input-output tables are used to inform ratios of basic prices, margins, taxes, and subsidies for each product to output at purchasers’ prices. This process uses data specifically related to household final consumption expenditure. These ratios are then applied to tourism output at purchasers’ prices estimates. The margin components of the above process that have a direct relationship to visitors (retail margins and some wholesale and transport margins), are added on to tourism output at basic prices and allocated to the appropriate margin product.

23.47    For each tourism product, Australian production and import estimates are divided by total tourism production at basic prices (from input-output tables) to generate ratios. These ratios are multiplied by the tourism supply at basic prices to estimate Australian production and import estimates of products produced to serve the visitor economy at basic prices.

23.48    The supply matrix in the national accounts supply-use tables is used to inform product level ratios of industry supply at basic prices. These ratios are applied to tourism output at basic prices by product. This provides tourism output by industry.

23.49    Direct and indirect tourism output is allocated according to the dimensions of the industry and product being provided. 

23.50    Regarding the direct and indirect allocation of tourism taxes on products, all taxes on service products are categorised as direct taxes. In the case of goods, the ratio of downstream taxes to total taxes is calculated from the input-output tables and then applied to the tourism taxes on products estimate. These downstream taxes are assigned to indirect taxes with the remaining amounts classified as direct taxes.

Deriving total intermediate use and gross value added

23.51    Ratios of total industry intermediate Use (TIU) to the total output at basic prices for each industry are calculated from the supply-use tables. These ratios are then applied to the industry-level direct tourism output at basic prices, resulting in the industry-level gross value added (GVA) and TIU of the tourism economy. 

Deriving tourism employment

23.52    The tourism GVA is divided by the total GVA for each industry to calculate a tourism GVA ratio. This ratio is then applied to the employment (filled jobs and main jobs) estimates for each industry to determine the corresponding figures for tourism. The employment estimates for each industry are sourced from the Australian Labour Account. 

23.53    The Labour Force Survey (LFS) provides part-time, full-time, male, and female employment statistics for each industry. These data are used to split the tourism estimates of filled jobs and main jobs.

Deriving tourism chain volume measures

23.54    Tourism GVA chain volume estimates are derived from tourism output minus tourism intermediate use in prices of the previous period. A volume index is then compiled, and this index is chained taking account of the price relativities from year to year. The index is then converted to chain volume values by using the current price index ratio from the reference year.

23.55    Refer to the methodology page for more information.

23.56   The Australian Defence Industry Account (ADIA) measures the direct economic contribution of the defence industry to the Australian economy. It presents estimates on the gross value added of the Australian defence industry disaggregated by state, industry division, sector and type of legal organisation (TOLO).

23.57   The ADIA has been designed to estimate the first-round economic impacts that Defence spending contributes to the Australian economy. The Australian defence industry represents the production of goods and services invoiced to the Commonwealth Department of Defence (Defence). Therefore, the scope of the ADIA is limited to Australian organisations that have directly received payments from Defence and have produced the goods and/or services that they deliver to Defence within Australia. Therefore, the ADIA GVA excludes:

• Defence expenditure to overseas entities
• Defence expenditure to Australian entities that have imported the good and/or service represented on the invoice
• transfers to other commonwealth government agencies
• wholesale and retail sales with no identified value add components (wholesale and retail margins are included).

23.58   Gross value added: Direct defence output (at basic prices) minus intermediate use (at purchasers' prices). The GVA of the Australian defence industry is a measure of the direct contribution of Defence expenditure to the Australian economy.

23.59   ADIA direct employment: the number of paid employees that are associated with the defence industry. This represents employment associated with defence expenditure, not employment created by Defence. Direct employment includes all part-time and full-time employees. This means some employees may be counted more than once if they work in more than one defence industry business. 

Defence Finance Group (DFG) dataset

23.60    Invoice-level data for all the expenditure made by the Department of Defence. The dataset contains the dollar amount of each invoice paid by the Defence. It includes descriptions of the expenditure, the Australian Business Number (ABN) of the organisations receiving the expenditure and other related metadata. 

Key use of data:

• Sets output at purchasers' price (PP) estimates for the Australian defence industry.
• Provides key location information for organisations in the Australian defence industry.
• Provides metadata used to code defence contracts to ABS product and industry classifications.

Australian National Accounts: Supply Use Tables

23.61    Key use of data:

• Model the conversion of Defence invoices from purchasers' prices (PP) to basic prices (BP).
• Model margin output of Defence invoices.
• Create total intermediate use (TIU) to output and primary input to output ratios to inform the GVA of Defence invoices.

ABS Business Register

23.62    Key uses of data:

• Classification of units in scope of the ADIA to their Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC).
• Provides additional location information on units in scope of the ADIA.
• Provides employee headcount estimate for each ABN.
• Used to allocate ABN level data to type of activity units (TAU) to inform GVA and business counts.

Business Activity Statements (BAS)

23.63    Key uses of data:  Total business turnover.

Deriving defence industry GVA

23.64    The invoice level DFG datasets act as the main input with the national accounts supply-use tables used to model key economic variables.

To derive the direct GVA estimates for the ADIA, the following steps are applied for each ABN, for each financial year:

1. Coding of Defence transactions to product (SUPC) and industry (SUIC and ANZSIC):  
   1. SUPC are coded using either manual coding (higher value invoices); automated coding (lower value invoices); or where this information is not available the ANZSIC of the supplying business is used to infer the most likely SUPC.
   2. The ABN of each Defence invoice is coded to ANZSIC industry using the most appropriate Type of Activity Unit (TAU) on the ABS Business Register. Each invoice is also allocated a SUIC based on the primary producing industry for the product supplied.
2. Defence contracts are converted from purchaser price (PP) to basic price using relationships in the supply-use tables to split PP into output (ratios) at BP, margins, taxes, and subsidies at the SUPC level, based on the specific SUPC they are coded to.
3. For each invoice margins are removed from output at BP. The margin estimates are then reallocated to the main supplying Industry for the specific margin.
4. Primary inputs for each invoice are calculated by:
   1. Calculating the TIU and primary input ratios to total output at BP for each SUIC.
   2. Applying the TIU ratios to output at BP for each in scope invoice to derive the TIU estimate.
   3. Subtracting the derived TIU estimate from output at BP to derive the GVA value for each invoice.
5. Individual invoices are aggregated to calculate total GVA by industry, state, type of legal organisation (TOLO) and sector. 

Deriving employment headcount estimates

23.65    To derive the direct employment headcount estimates for the ADIA, the following steps are applied for each ABN, for each financial year:

1. Source input data:
   1. the total employment estimate for each ABN is sourced from the ABS Business Register.
   2. the total turnover for each ABN is sourced from the ATO (Business Activity Statement) data.
   3. Defence turnover (invoices) for each ABN is sourced from the DFG dataset.
2. Calculate the turnover ratio for each ABN: the turnover ratio is an ABN’s Defence turnover to its total turnover.
3. Estimate Defence employment for each ABN:
4. the total employment estimate from the ABS Business Register is multiplied by the turnover ratio to estimate the direct employment associated with Defence payments received by that ABN.
5. where employment or tax data is insufficient, a divisional ratio is used to calculate defence industry employment.

4. Calculate aggregate Defence employment: sum direct employment estimates for all ABNs to calculate aggregate direct defence industry employment.

Deriving business counts estimates

23.66    Counts of businesses that have provided goods and services to Defence are derived by counting:

• ABNs in the non-profiled population that receive a payment from Defence.
• TAUs in the profiled population that receive a payment from Defence. 

23.67    Total business counts are provided for Australia. Where a business provides goods and services to Defence in multiple states these activities are also captured in the state totals. The sum of the state totals will therefore not add to the Australia total.

23.68    Refer to the methodology page for more information.

23.69    The Australian Transport Economic Account (ATEA) is an experimental thematic account that is intended to provide a comprehensive picture of transport activity performed throughout all sectors of the Australian economy. The inaugural account was released in 2018, covering the period from 2010-11 to 2015-16. A second account was released in 2023, extending the reference period to 2020-21.

23.70    The role of the ATEA is to identify the full extent of transport activities in the economy; that is, beyond what is undertaken by businesses in the transport industry. It combines transport activity conducted on a for-hire basis by businesses in the transport industry, and transport activity undertaken by businesses that are in non-transport industries. The transport activity undertaken by non-transport businesses is called in-house transport.

23.71    There are currently no international standards or guidelines for developing a transport thematic account. The methodology used for the ATEA follows the United States and Canadian transport accounts, with some variations due to differences in available data sources. Scope 

23.72    Total transport activity is defined as:

• For-hire transport activity undertaken by businesses within the transport, postal and warehousing industry (Division I), e.g., air passenger transport by commercial airlines or transport of goods by freight transport businesses; and
• In-house transport activity of businesses in other (non-transport) industries, including:
  • ancillary transport activity (which is not intended for market) undertaken in the production of an industry’s primary output. An example of this activity is a retail business using their own truck to deliver goods from a warehouse to their retail outlet.
  • secondary production of transport activity for market, where a fee is charged. For example, where that same retail business uses their own truck to deliver those goods to the customer for a delivery fee.

23.73    To maintain consistency with the national accounts, transport services provided by households for their own use are not in scope of the ATEA.

23.74    Transport gross value added:  the value of the output of transport products (including both for-hire and in-house transport) for all industries less the value of the inputs used in producing these transport products. Output is measured at basic prices; that is ,before any taxes on transport products are added (or any subsidies on transport products are deducted). GVA is used for comparisons between industries because it is free of the effects of taxes and subsidies on products, which can vary between industries and over time, and do not represent value added by the industry producing that product.  

23.75    Total transport GDP:  a construct of this account to enable a direct comparison with other GDP measures. While transport GDP is useful in this context, the total transport GVA measure should be used when making comparisons with other industries.

23.76    Transport margins:  transport charges paid separately by the purchaser. This is in accordance with System of National Accounts 2008 (2008 SNA). In the ATEA delivery, charges are included if they were invoiced separately and the delivery was undertaken by vehicles owned by the business.

Transport Industry and Activity Survey

23.77    Detailed data was collected in the Transport Industry and Activity Survey (TIAS) for the 2010-11 and 2020-21 reference years. The TIAS is a subset of the Economic Activity Survey. Less detailed data was collected in other years through ongoing EAS collections.

23.78    Key use of data:

• Expenditure on each mode of transport
• Transport specific expenditure grouped into fuel; repairs, parts, and maintenance; rental, leasing and hiring; and registration fees and transport vehicle insurance
• The input structure of in-house transport for each ANZSIC industry.

Australian National Accounts: Supply Use Tables

 23.79    Key use of data: 

• Informs the calculation of in-house transport output, by backcasting TIAS data and calibrating TIU totals for all industries. This ensures full coverage of the ATEA scope and consistency with the supply-use tables. 

Census of Population and Housing

 23.80    Key use of data:  Census data is used to calculate the occupation by industry ratios used to estimate transport related and warehousing employed persons.

Labour Account, Australia

23.81    Key use of data:  Used to provide industry and, for Division I, subdivision level estimates of transport related and warehousing employed persons.

Labour Force, Australia

23.82    Key use of data:  Used to calculate the male and female employment ratios for each ANZSIC industry.

Gross value added

23.83    Total transport activity is calculated by adding Division I estimates from the national accounts with in-house transport estimates for all other industries, as generated in the ATEA.

23.84    To derive the direct GVA estimates for the ADIA, the following steps are taken: 

1. Identify expenditure on transport related inputs (TRIs) for non-Division I industries using the 2020-21 TIAS. The transport related inputs are categorised as:

• Fuel
• Repairs, maintenance, parts, and accessories
• Registration fees and transport vehicle insurance, including tolls and network access fees
• Rental, leasing and hiring.

2. Use the TIAS data to calculate the ratio of transport output to transport input for each mode of transport, i.e., how much transport output is produced from the value of transport related inputs used.
3. Use the output estimates to produce other key financial indicators (i.e., intermediate use, compensation of employees, taxes and subsidies, industry value added and GDP), using the relationships reported in the TIAS 2020-21 data.
4. Estimate general government activity, which is out of scope of the TIAS (except for units in water supply, sewerage, and drainage services, e.g., ANZSIC Subdivision 28) but is an important component of in-house transport activity. To account for this missing activity, the ATEA rebases transport related expenditure as reported in the 2020-21 TIAS to TIU levels in the 2020-21 supply-use tables.
5. Back cast detailed transport data collected in the 2020-21 TIAS to 2010-11, using the movements of the most relevant product in the supply-use tables for each industry. For example, the time series for fuel inputs to in-house road transport for the construction industry are imputed using movements in the supply-use product automotive petroleum and coal products in the construction industry. The supply-use tables capture COVID-19 impacts in the timeseries.

23.85    Refer to the methodology page for more information.

23.86    This section describes the underpinnings of the environmental-economic accounts produced by the ABS. Those accounts follow the recommendations of the United Nations' System of Environmental-Economic Accounting. The SEEA is an international statistical standard that had its genesis as a satellite system of the SNA. As a result, it uses concepts, structures and methods that are largely consistent with those used in the SNA, allowing the SEEA to integrate environmental and economic information within a single framework.

23.87    Over the past 50 years, macroeconomic policy has largely been based on information flowing from the SNA framework and the aggregates it produces. However, gross domestic product and national income fail to capture many vital aspects of national wealth and well-being, such as changes in:

• the quality of health, extent of education, social connection, unpaid household work
• the quality and quantity of natural resources.

Further, GDP includes ''defensive expenditures'' such as spending on household security, health and environmental protection. This is because the SNA measures activity within ''the market''.

23.88    It is understood that much of what maintains and enhances well-being occurs outside the market. While the SNA includes certain non-market activities—such as government services and household production for own use—many environmental assets, like ecosystems, remain outside the production boundary. These assets often provide free inputs to production (e.g., clean air, water filtration, pollination) without any explicit cost to producers, so they are not recorded in the core accounts. 

23.89    This situation was summarised in the 1989 World Resources Institute report, Wasting Assets: Natural Resources in the National Income Accounts, with the following statement:  "A country could exhaust its mineral resources, cut down its forests, erode its soil, pollute its aquifers, and hunt its wildlife to extinction, but measured income would not be affected as these assets disappeared".

23.90    A key limitation of the standard economic information system is that it cannot answer some of the higher order questions policymakers (and society) are asking. In particular, it does not appropriately describe the relationship between the environment and economy.

23.91    Therefore, a comprehensive analysis of environmental issues, and the policy responses to deal with these, must be informed by socio-economic information about drivers, pressures, impacts and responses. This information should be integrated with the associated bio-physical information so that relationships and linkages can be properly understood.

23.92    Environmental-economic accounts provide a conceptual framework for integrating the environmental and economic information systems. Similarly, organising environmental and economic information into an accounting framework has the capacity to improve basic statistics, and allows for the calculation of indicators which are precisely defined, consistent and interlinked, as illustrated in the figure below:

23.93    The conceptual model adopted by the ABS and the international statistical community for environmental accounts is the United Nations' System of Environmental-Economic Accounting. The SEEA consists of two parts: the SEEA Central Framework and SEEA Ecosystem Accounting. The structures, concepts and classifications used in the SEEA are broadly consistent with those used in the SNA, meaning that accounts produced under the SEEA support the bringing together of environmental and economic information within a common framework. This allows for consistent analysis of the contribution of the environment to the economy, the impact of the economy on the environment, and the efficiency of the use of environmental resources within the economy.

23.94    The SEEA Central Framework, like the SNA, uses flow and stock accounts containing estimates expressed in both physical and monetary terms. More broadly, it presents the following types of accounts:

• physical flow accounts
• asset flow accounts
• environmental activity accounts.

23.95    Physical flow accounts record flows of natural inputs from the environment to the economy, flows of products within the economy and flows of residuals generated by the economy. These flows include water and energy used in production (e.g. of agricultural commodities) and waste flows to the environment (e.g. solid waste to landfill).

23.96    Asset accounts in physical and monetary terms measure the natural resources available and changes in the amount available. Asset accounts focus on the key individual components of the environment: mineral and energy resources; timber resources; fish/aquatic resources; other biological resources; soil resources; water resources; and land. They include measures of the stock of each environmental asset at the beginning and end of an accounting period and record the various changes in the stock due to extraction, natural growth, discovery, catastrophic loss or other reasons. 

23.97    Environmental activity accounts record transactions between different economic units (i.e. enterprises, households and governments) that concern the environment. Environmental activity accounts explicitly identify environmentally related transactions contained within standard SNA accounts, as such flows are not explicitly shown within typical SNA presentations. For example, Environmental Protection Expenditure (EPE) accounts disaggregate traditional national accounting flows to reveal those monetary transactions relevant to environmental protection and resource management.

23.98    The SEEA Central Framework is complemented by the SEEA Ecosystem Accounting. Ecosystem accounts are a relatively new and developing field. In March 2021, the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) adopted chapters 1-7 of SEEA EA as an international statistical standard. In the same document, chapters 8-11 present internationally recognised statistical principles and recommendations for valuation of ecosystem services and assets.  

23.99    SEEA EA constitutes an integrated and comprehensive statistical framework for organising data about habitats and landscapes, measuring the ecosystem services, tracking changes in ecosystem assets, and linking this information to economic and other human activity. Ecosystems are areas containing a dynamic complex of flora, fauna and micro-organism communities and their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit. Ecosystem accounts are structured to summarise information about these areas, their changing capacity to operate as a functional unit, and their delivery of benefits to humanity.

23.100    The benefits received by humanity are known as ecosystem services. They are delivered in different forms and are grouped into three broad categories:

1. provisioning services – the benefits received from the natural inputs provided by the environment such as water, timber, fish and energy resources;
2. regulatory services – the benefits provided when an ecosystem operates as a sink for emissions and other residuals, when an ecosystem provides flood mitigation services or when an ecosystem provides pollination services to agriculture; and
3. cultural services – the benefits provided when an ecosystem such as a forest, provides recreational, spiritual or other benefits to people.

23.101    Each of the different types of accounts is connected within the SEEA framework but each one focuses on a different part of the interaction between the economy and the environment. Examples of the relationships between the different accounts include:

• Asset accounts and ecosystem accounts focus on the stock and changes in the stock of environmental assets, with asset accounts focusing on the individual components and ecosystem accounts focusing on the interactions within and between these components.
• Changes in the stock are often the result of economic activity which in turn is the focus of physical flow accounts. Measurement of flows of natural inputs in the physical supply and use tables is consistent with the measurement of extraction in the asset accounts and the measurement of provisioning services in ecosystem accounts.
• Measurement of flows of residuals to the environment as recorded in physical supply and use tables is an important consideration in the measurement of ecosystem services, particularly regulatory services.
• Measures of the flows of natural inputs and residuals can also be related to transactions recorded in functional accounts for environmental protection and resource management, including investment in cleaner technologies and flows of environmental taxes and subsidies. For example, payments for emission permits recorded in activity accounts can be related to the flows of emissions recorded in the physical supply and use tables and to the operating surplus of emitters and final expenditures by households.
• The effectiveness of the expenditure for environmental purposes may, ultimately, be assessed by changes in the capacity of ecosystems to continue their delivery of ecosystem services as recorded in ecosystem accounts.

23.102    These examples serve to highlight the many and varied relationships between the accounts, each taking a different perspective. These relationships are supported using common concepts, definitions and classifications throughout the SEEA.

23.103    One of the most challenging aspects of environmental-economic decision-making is obtaining appropriate information to inform trade-offs between the environmental assets that deliver a range of non-market goods and services, including ecosystem services, against development alternatives for which there are clearly defined economic values. The SNA and the SEEA Central Framework include the value of environmental assets that have direct economic values. For example, land, timber, minerals and energy resources are included in the national and sectoral balance sheets, which are published in the Australian System of National Accounts. 

23.104    The preferred valuation in the SNA and the SEEA Central Framework is based on market transactions. Some environmental assets (and many ecosystem services) are not transacted in markets; in these instances, non-market valuation techniques must be used. For example, mineral deposits are owned by the Commonwealth and state governments in Australia, and are not sold on active markets; rather, they are extracted under a mining lease arrangement. Under these circumstances, it is recommended that the value of the mineral deposit be calculated as the net present value of future expected income resulting from the extraction of this mineral deposit.

23.105    In some cases, the value of certain ecosystem services may be included in the value of goods and services traded in markets. For example, the value of pollination is captured in the value of agricultural crop production, while tourism operators derive income from the people visiting natural attractions such as Uluru and the Great Barrier Reef.

23.106    The development of standardised methods for identifying and separately distinguishing the value of environmental assets and ecosystem services is an on-going area of work in the SEEA. The recognition of the value of these assets and services potentially provides important information to decision-makers; for example, in informing comparisons between various development alternatives.

23.107      A variety of environmental accounts have been compiled by the ABS. These accounts are at different stages of maturity, and some accounts that were compiled in the past, such as environment protection expenditure accounts, are no longer produced. Other ones are in regular annual production, such as the natural resources on the national and sectoral balance sheets, as well as energy and water accounts.

23.108      In some cases, the ABS undertakes substantial primary data collection activity to support the production of accounts, such as Water Account, Australia. In other cases, the ABS draws on a range of external sources. For instance, Energy Account, Australia uses administrative data from the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) Scheme; data from the Annual Energy Update published by DCCEEW; and the ABS Energy and Water Survey (EWS).

23.109      Table 23.1 lists the features of ABS environmental-economic accounts releases by theme.

23.110    The following information summarises the key features of each publication:

• Water Account, Australia (annual) – includes information on the physical and monetary supply and use of water in the Australian economy. It also includes information on water use and consumptive practices of key industries (Agriculture, Water supply, sewerage and drainage services) and households, as well as presenting data cubes for Australia and the States and Territories. 
  Water Account, Australia | Australian Bureau of Statistics
• Energy Account, Australia (annual) –  includes physical supply and use tables that identify physical volumes by energy product, including supply and use by Australian industry, households, and energy imports and exports.  In addition, monetary data are provided for the use of energy products by Australian industry, as well as data on physical and monetary energy assets, and indicators such as, per capita uses of energy and energy intensity by industry.
• Land Accounts – the National Land Account, Experimental Estimates and National Land Cover Account bring together statistics that measure changes in land attributes over time, from an economic, extent and environmental perspective. They provide insights on land use, land cover, land tenure, and land value.
• National Ecosystem Accounts, experimental estimates – the ecosystem accounts include physical and monetary estimates of the extent, condition and services provided by Australia's ecosystems, including terrestrial, coastal, freshwater and marine realms.
• Great Barrier Reef ecosystem accounts (2015 & 2017) – draw on a wide range of environmental-economic accounts data, including marine and terrestrial extent and condition; provisioning ecosystem services for crops and fishing; regulating ecosystem services; recreational cultural services; carbon; socioeconomic statistics; social values and Indigenous values pertaining to the region.

23.110      The key sources and methods for these releases are summarised in Table 23.2.

23.111    The SEEA also includes other types of accounts, such as those for emissions and material flows, as well as environmental activity accounts such as environmental goods and services accounts, resource management and environmental protection expenditure, and environmental taxes and subsidies.  ABS do not currently produce these SEEA based accounts.

23.112    There are strong links between the Environmental Economic Accounts produced by ABS and the ASNA. 

23.113    For instance, data in the physical and monetary energy account tables are compiled on the same basis. That is, they use the same definitions and classifications of energy products and energy flows, as well as applying the same time frames and recording principles. The monetary data have close alignment with the energy product data published in the ABS supply and use tables.  Any variations are due to: 

• Classification differences at the product level.
• Source data differences for the historical timeseries.
• Conceptual difference for natural gas. The physical Energy Account includes natural gas converted to LNG, and this has been valued at market prices in the monetary table. However, the ASNA does not consider this own account transformation as a 'use' and so it is not included in the supply and use tables.
• Different balancing options being needed to retain internal consistency within the supply-use tables and the Energy Account. 

23.114    Annual national accounts benchmarks incorporate data from the Water Account, Australia to rebenchmark water charges applied to residential dwellings within the accounts. This rebenchmarking process uses household total expenditure figures drawn from Monetary Water Supply and Use, by Industry and Water Type (Purchasers’ Prices), as reported in Table 11 of the Water Account, Australia. 

23.115    The SEEA Central Framework is currently under review by the international community. It is anticipated that the SEEA Central Framework 2028 will be endorsed by the UN Statistical Commission in March 2028. The SEEA Central Framework review will focus on ensuring alignment with 2025 SNA and other international standards and classifications, as well as updating SEEA for evolving policy demands, including climate change, biodiversity, circular economy and sustainable finance. Integration with the SEEA EA will also be addressed.