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GLOSSARY

ABS Address Register

Administrative data is collected as part of the day to day processes and record keeping of organisations.

Classifications

A set of categories used to organise data.

Confidentialisation

To remove or alter information, or collapse detail within a dataset, to ensure that no person or organisation is likely to be identified in the data (directly or indirectly).

Data Custodian

The government body/bodies responsible for maintaining each existing dataset identified in the ESA for Australia list.

Data Standards

A set of guidelines that specify how ABS data are collected, processed and released.

Essential Statistical Assets

Essential statistical assets are defined as a set of official statistical assets that, due to their application and importance, should be given priority in order to provide a high quality and trusted statistical service. Recognising those statistics (and their datasets) considered to be most critical to Australia will help ensure their level of quality is maintained and enhanced over time.

Essential Statistical Infrastructure

Essential statistical infrastructure is defined as the critical elements required to underpin the operation of official statistics. Essential statistical infrastructure includes several important components of Australia’s statistical system including:

• procedures that enable statistical production activities
• conceptual standards, official classification structures, and various registers that are used in statistical production activities
• foundational assets of legislation, policies and governance that provide structure and organisation to the statistical system’s environment
• software applications that enable or support statistical production activities
• skills and culture.

A frame can be a list or other specification of the units which define a population to be completely enumerated or sampled

G-NAF

G-NAF (Geocoded National Address File) is a database of all the physical addresses in Australia. It contains data including the state, suburb, street, number and coordinate reference (or “geocode”).

Machinery of government changes

A variety of organisational or functional changes affecting agencies and departments of the Commonwealth and state/territory governments.

Metadata

The information that defines and describes data.

Metadata Registers

A system or application where metadata is stored, managed and disseminated.

METeOR

METeOR is Australia’s repository for national metadata standards for health, housing and community services statistics and information.

Official Statistics

Statistics produced for statistical purposes, to inform research, decision making, service delivery, policy and evaluation.

Quality

Data quality is generally accepted as a ‘fitness for purpose’ concept, where data is assessed with reference to its intended objectives or aims. Data quality is therefore also a multidimensional concept which does not only include the accuracy of statistics, but also stretches to include other aspects such as relevance and interpretability. The ABS Data Quality Framework is comprised of seven dimensions of quality, which are:

1. Institutional Environment,

2. Relevance,

3. Timeliness,

4. Accuracy,

5. Coherence,

6. Interpretability, and

7. Accessibility.

Registers provide a common list of units in a population for statistical producers.

Statistical Assets

Statistical assets are the statistics, as well as the datasets that they are drawn from (where they exist).

Statistical System

Statistical organisations and units within a country that collect, process and disseminate official statistics on behalf of national government.

Validata^TM

The AIHW’s online data receipt and validation product, Validata, has been designed to improve the quality and timeliness of data supplied by jurisdictions and non-government organisations. It enables data providers to quickly check and validate the quality of their data submissions against a set of validation rules.