EXPLANATORY NOTES
EXPLANATORY NOTES
COVERAGE
1 This publication contains estimates of Australian public funding for arts and cultural activities, facilities and services for the Australian government and state and territory governments in 2007-08 and for local governments for 2006-07 and 2007-08.
2 Statistics for the Australian Government and state and territory governments were collected by the survey of Cultural Funding by Government, for the 2007-08 reference period. The survey collected information on the amount of operational and capital expenditure by Australian and state government departments (including selected authorities, corporations and councils) for heritage and arts cultural activities, facilities and services. Where departmental information was not provided in 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 Australian Bureau of Statistics (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 in the whole of government sector, specific purpose grants received from other levels of government have been netted out of the expenditure for the receiving government.
5 Funding by government 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) has been included. Funding for special libraries (e.g. Parliamentary libraries), libraries in higher education institutions and schools is excluded.
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. Departments supplied details of their operational and capital expenditure on arts and culture. A number of agencies and authorities were contacted directly for information upon advice from their respective departments.
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. For 2007-08, the local government data was classified according to the Local Government Purpose Classification (LGPC) and not the Government Purpose Classification (GPC) as in previous years. Comparable local government data for the 2006-07 year was available and has been presented in this release.
10 Detailed expenditure by local governments for cultural and arts funding is provided for the first time in this issue. In 2006-07, this collection provided estimates for libraries and total cultural funding expenditure and prior to 2006-07 for total cultural funding expenditure only, however, this data was based on the GPC.
11 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 Local Government Grants Commissions, or equivalent in each state or territory.
12 While the local government data in this publication is classified according to the LGPC, not all states and territories have fully adopted the classification in terms of their reporting arrangements. For New South Wales, 'Cultural or arts services nec' (LGPC 0829) includes Performing Arts (LGPC 0826 and 0827). For Victoria, 'Cultural or arts services nec' (LGPC 0829) includes data relating to art museums, other museums and cultural heritage, performing arts venues and culture or arts services nec. For the Northern Territory 'Cultural or arts services nec' (LGPC 0829) includes data relating to art museums, other museums and cultural heritage, performing arts venues, culture or arts services nec, in addition to library data for five councils with responsibility for their own public libraries.
STATE COMPARISONS
13 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.
CALCULATION OF PER PERSON FUNDING
14 The population values used in calculating per person funding are the ABS estimated resident population at the mid-point (December quarter) of the collection year. This publication uses estimated resident population figures for December 2007 and December 2006. These values were taken from Australian Demographic Statistics (cat. no. 3101.0) September Qtr 2008.
15 To maintain consistency between levels of government, the same estimated 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 Australian, state and territory, and local government per person funding to add to total per person funding.
COMPARISON WITH PREVIOUS SURVEY RESULTS
16 It should be noted that changes in the collection methodology and improvements to the scope and coverage of the 2007-08 survey of Australian government and state and territory government mean that data prior to and including 2006-07 is not comparable with the 2007-08 survey data. For 2007-08 the local government data was classified according to the Local Government Purpose Classification (LGPC) and not the Government Purpose Classification (GPC) as in previous years. Comparable local government data for the 2006-07 was available and has been presented in this release.
FURTHER INFORMATION
17 More details of cultural funding in Australia are published by the Cultural Ministers Council Statistics Working Group.
18 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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