EXPLANATORY NOTES
COVERAGE
1 This publication contains estimates of public funding for arts and cultural activities, facilities and services for the three levels of government in Australia in 2006-07 and the preceding two years.
2 Statistics for the Australian Government and state and territory governments relate mainly to funding from Australian and state and territory budgets. For some 'off budget' agencies (i.e. agencies which are authorised to operate their own bank accounts), only the funding from annual appropriations is included. Where agency information has not provided appropriate detail to comply with the categories listed in this publication, estimates have been used. Any funding from other sources, such as donations, membership costs or entrance fees, is excluded from analysis.
3 Agencies classified by the ABS as public trading enterprises (e.g. most performing arts venues) are not included except to the extent of any subsidies (or capital funding) paid to them from government budgets.
4 In order to ensure that funds are not counted more than once, specific purpose grants received from other levels of government have been netted out of the expenditure for the receiving government.
5 For arts education, only funding by government arts portfolios has been included. Usually, funding from these portfolios is for major institutions which specialise in education of a cultural nature, such as the National Academy of Music, the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), the Australian Ballet School and the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS). Cultural disciplines within educational institutions, such as universities and tertiary colleges, are largely funded by education portfolios and, therefore, are generally excluded. Funding is also excluded for special libraries (e.g. Parliamentary libraries), libraries in higher education institutions and schools, and cultural activities which are an integral part of larger entities (such as police and military bands).
CLASSIFICATION
6 In 2008 the ABS published the Australian Culture and Leisure Classifications, Second Edition (cat. no. 4902.0). These classifications are intended to form the basis for future statistical compilation in the fields of culture and leisure by the ABS and other organisations. Categories used in this publication have been aligned, where possible with the Industry Classification from this set of classifications.
SOURCES AND METHODS
Australian Government
7 The Australian Government refers to the federal (national) level of government and was previously referred to as the Commonwealth Government. This change of name is in response to an Australian Government initiative in 2004.
State and territory governments
8 State and territory government information was obtained from a range of sources. Arts authorities supplied details of their recurrent and capital expenditure. For other state and territory public sector authorities, relevant data were extracted from budget papers. Details of relevant funding were also obtained from other state and territory government organisations such as health promotion foundations and major events organisations.
Local governments
9 Funding by local government of arts and cultural activities are included as part of the Local Government Finance Statistics collection undertaken by the ABS. In 2005-06, this collection provided estimates for total culture funding expenditure, but data was not available in any more detail. These total estimates were obtained from the Recreation and Culture group of the Government Purpose Classification used by the ABS in compiling government financial estimates. These estimates should be interpreted with caution as the co-ordination of data undertaken by the ABS does not currently permit detailed data checks at this level of output, meaning that some large variations in funding from year to year could not be validated with individual Councils. The data is therefore simply a reflection of the current reporting by Councils through the grants commission in each state or territory. Expenditure by local governments on libraries is provided separately for trhe first time in this issue. Previously only a total local government figure was provided. A more detailed breakdown of culture funding, including additional categories, is expected to be available in future years.
CALCULATION OF PER PERSON FUNDING
10 The population values used in calculating per person funding are the ABS estimates of the resident population at the mid-point of the collection year. The estimates of resident populations for years prior to 2006-07 have been revised. This publication uses resident population estimates for December 2004 (20,252,132), December 2005 (20,544,064) and December 2006 (20,848,760). These values were taken from Australian Demographic Statistics (cat. no. 3101.0).
11 To maintain consistency between levels of government, the same resident population estimates are used for all estimates of per person funding (regardless of the level of government under consideration). This approach has been adopted to allow the aggregate of federal, state and territory, and local government per person funding to add to total per person funding.
STATE COMPARISONS
12 Care should be taken when comparing values between states and territories for some categories of funding as the funding provided by state and territory governments may vary according to the administrative arrangements existing in the respective states and territories. For example, zoological and botanic gardens in Queensland, unlike other states, are funded by local government and not the state government. Further, the costs associated with the administration of culture may vary significantly among agencies.
REVISIONS IN 2005-06
13 Care should be taken when comparing data in this publication with those of previous editions as the historical data shown in this publication have been revised as improved sources of information have become available.
FURTHER INFORMATION
14 More details of cultural funding in Australia are published by the Cultural Ministers Council Statistics Working Group.
15 Current publications and other products released by the ABS are available from the ABS web site <http:\\www.abs.gov.au>. The ABS also issues a daily Release Advice on the web site which details products to be released in the week ahead.
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