A View From The Top
From the Regional Director
Statistics alone aren’t really all that valuable. Only when we put them in context do they really start making some sense.
Our recent edition of Stats Talk on the implications of a rapidly growing population is a good example. For some time now statistics have been telling us that WA is the fastest growing State. This, of course, is evidence of what an attractive State this is to live and work in.
However, this is only part of the picture. There are real infrastructure issues around such an expansion including what we want our State to look like and issues like access to water, power, education and health. It isn’t the ABS role to determine what the policy issues are, however, it is important that we put the statistics into a context that allows broader debate to occur. It was pleasing to see one of our articles generating such robust discussion.
Population has certainly become an important issue for both Australia and Western Australia and underlines the value of the population estimations produced by the ABS. Given that these estimations are built from the Census count, it is critical we get the best possible result from the next Census in 2011. These numbers will live with us for the following 5 years, so we cannot afford a less than optimal result.
To get an optimal result we need a Western Australian community that is involved through all levels of Government and through local community groups and organisations. Let’s get behind the Census!
Michael Tindall,
Government Statistician and
ABS Regional Director,
Western Australia
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