NO.051

IMPROVING AUSTRALIA’S OFFICIAL STATISTICS

The Australian Government will provide additional funding to the ABS of $76.2million

over four years to strengthen and expand statistical collections and to improve

the availability of data to the community. The Australian Bureau of Statistics

provides a high quality statistical service to meet the needs of government,

businesses and the community.

The Government believes that official statistics should be readily available

to all Australians. To support this aim, the ABS will make all of its statistical

publications available for download free of charge from the internet.

The 2001Census of Population and Housing gave Australians the choice to have

their census forms retained for public release after 99years. The Government

has decided that this option will also be made available for future censuses,

providing a potentially invaluable data source for future genealogists and historical

researchers. The Government will provide funding to the ABS of $19.0million

over four years to support this proposal.

The Government will also provide funding of $3.1million over four years to

the ABS to expand the range of data collected in the 2006Census. Additional

questions on unpaid work, fertility and access to the internet will assist in

the planning and provision of important community services. Funding of $9.1million

over four years will allow the ABS to provide an option for households to submit

their 2006Census information over the internet (eCensus). This investment in

eCensus infrastructure is expected to reduce the cost of future Censuses.

The Government will provide funding of $45.0million over four years to implement

measures that strengthen and expand the range of other statistical collections.

These measures include a new house price index, improvements to a range of macroeconomic

statistics and the incorporation of new international standards into economic

statistics. New surveys will be conducted on the food industry and natural resource

management, and a database will be developed to analyse small business growth

and performance. The ABS will also work to improve the accuracy of regional

population estimates and develop new analytical measures of the economic and

social circumstances of indigenous Australians.

CANBERRA

10May2005