Public Notification: Release of Lists of Business Characteristics

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), in accordance with the requirements of section 14 of the Census and Statistics (Information Release and Access) Determination 2018, made under section 13 of the Census and Statistics Act 1905, may disclose lists of business characteristics. 

To release a list of business characteristics, the Australian Statistician or delegate must:

• approve in writing the release of the list.
• be given an undertaking in relation to the information specifying that the individual or organisation covered by the undertaking:
  1. will use the list only for purposes specified in the undertaking which do not involve enforcing any obligation or liability applicable under any enactment; and
  • will comply with any other condition that, in the opinion of the Statistician, is reasonably necessary in a particular case; and
  • will not, except for the purposes specified in the undertaking, release the list to:
    • if the list is to be disclosed to an individual — another individual, or an organisation; or
    • if the list is to be disclosed to an organisation — an individual outside the organisation or another organisation.
• failure to comply with these terms and conditions may be an offence under subsection 19(3) of the Census and Statistics Act 1905, the penalty for which is a fine of up to 120 penalty units ($39,600), or imprisonment for 2 years, or both.
• make publicly available within 28 days of the disclosure, a description of the release.

Releases since 1 January 2020 are contained below.

6/2024

Released to: 

Australian Government Department of Education (DoE).

Name of Collection:

Release of a list of names of non-government schools and aggregate measures of the income of parents or guardians of students. 

Other particulars:

The DoE has provided the ABS with a signed undertaking, which outlines agreed upon terms and conditions for the use and management of the information disclosed. 

The list was disclosed to the DoE on 28 October 2024.

Purpose of release:

The list will be used by the DoE for the purpose of the Capacity to Contribute project, which is to inform research, policy decisions and calculations of the amount of base recurrent funding to non-government schools from the Commonwealth Government under the Australian Education Act 2013.

ABS provided: 

• school name, school identifier and school sector;
• school geographic area;
• derived standardised scores for direct measure of income, for 2022, 2023 and 2024;
• derived scores for Capacity to Contribute for 2025;
• summary measures of parental income, and associated missingness, accuracy and volatility measures;
• average family size;
• linkage and coverage rates of administrative data;
• deemed reviewed scores and supporting metrics or quality indicators.

5/2024

Released to: 

Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Science (ABARES).

Name of Collection:

Release of 3 separate lists of business contact details from the Australian Business Register (ABR) based ABS Business Register.

Other particulars:

Three separate lists consisting of  business contact details (including name, address, telephone number) for farm businesses selected by ABARES in the 2024-25 ABARES Farm Survey Program. 

The lists were disclosed between 4 June 2024 and 19 June 2024.

Purpose of release:

The information contained in the lists will be used by the departments for the purpose of achieving the outcomes and specified objectives of the National Information Agreement on Early Childhood Education and Care (NIA ECEC).

ABS provided: 

• Deidentified business information and characteristics by the ABS to ABARES on 27 April 2023, as detailed in public notification no.2 of 2023. 
• Business contact details by the ABS to ABARES between 23 May and 29 May 2023, as detailed in public notification no.3 of 2023. 
• Business contact details by the ABS to ABARES between 30 November 2023 and 11 January 2024, as detailed in public notification no.1 of 202 

The ABS may provide further subsequent list releases to ABARES. 

4/2024

Released to: 

State and Territory Education Departments

Name of Collection:

Release of a list of business operating preschool programs in Australia from the ABS 2023 National Early Childhood Education and Care Collection

Other particulars:

The list of business operating preschool programs in Australia was released to the following departments:

• Australian Government Department of Education
• New South Wales Department of Education
• Victorian Department of Education
• Queensland Department of Education
• South Australian Department for Education and Child Development
• Western Australia Department of Education
• Tasmania Department for Education, Children and Young People
• Northern Territory Department of Education
• Australian Capital Territory Education Directorate

The lists were disclosed on 10 June 2024.

Purpose of release:

The information contained in the lists will be used by the departments for the purpose of achieving the outcomes and specified objectives of the National Information Agreement on Early Childhood Education and Care (NIA ECEC).

ABS provided: 

For each business in the list, the ABS provides:

• business name and address;
• trading name;
• management type;
• service type; and
• state/territory

3/2024

Released to: 

Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts (DITRDCA).

Name of Collection:

Release of a list local governments and associated revenue and expense by Economic Type Framework and functions of government.

Other particulars:

The DITRDCA has provided the ABS with a signed undertaking, which outlines agreed upon terms and conditions for the use and management of the information disclosed. It must not be used for enforcing any obligation or liability applicable under an enactment.

The lists were disclosed on 3 June 2024.

Purpose of release:

The information contained in the lists will be used to research characteristics of local governments that correlate with financial capacity.

ABS provided: 

A list of transactions and balance sheet items for each local government for each financial year from 2016-17 through to 2021-22.

Transactions were Revenues; Expenses; and Transactions in non-financial assets:

• by Economic Type Framework at 4 digit level
• by Classification of Functions of Government – Australia and
• for financial years covering 2016-17 through to 2021-22.

Balance sheet items were defined by the Type of asset and liability classification at 1 digit level.

Released to: 

Australian Energy Market Operator.

Name of Collection:

Release of lists of business characteristics to the Australian Energy Market Operator.

Other particulars:

Two lists consisting of business characteristics sourced from the Australia Business Register (ABR) and the ABS Business Locations Asset were provided to the Australian Energy Market Operator.

The lists were disclosed on 11 April 2024.

Purpose of release:

The information contained in the lists will be used for the purpose of understanding electricity consumption by industry at the location level. 

In the first list, for each business in the list, the ABS provided: 

• Australian Business Number (ABN)
• Employing/Non-employing/Not economically active flag
• Business name
• ABN Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) at the class (four digit) level
• TAU Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) at the class (four digit) level
• Profiled population flag
• Employment size ranges

In the second list, for the ABNs in the first list, the ABS provided: 

• ABN
• Local Government Area code
• Local Government Area name
• Business Address
• Business Locality
• Business State
• Business Postcode
• Geocode

Released to: 

Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES).

Name of Collection:

Release of Lists of Agricultural Farm Businesses to Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences.

Other particulars:

Three separate lists consisting of business contact details (including name, address and telephone number) taken from the Australian Business Register (ABR) based ABS Business Register were provided to ABARES, for farm businesses selected by ABARES in the 2023-24 ABARES Farm Survey Program.

Lists were disclosed between 30 November 2023 and 11 January 2024

Purpose of release:

The information contained in the lists will be used to support the conduct of the 2023-24 ABARES Farm Surveys Program, through supplementing data holdings to avoid the need to collect this information in surveys.

ABS provided: 

• business contact details (including name, address and telephone number) for farm businesses selected in an ABARES Farm Survey.  

Subsequent list releases will comprise of:

Selected information (measure of size in ranged values, one or more geographic codes, latitude, and longitude coordinates, ANZSIC, secondary activity indicators, unique identifying number) for farm businesses responding to an ABARES Farm Survey.

Released to: 

Australian Government Department of Education (DoE)

Name of Collection:

Release of a list of names of non-government schools and aggregate measures of the income of parents or guardians of students

Other particulars:

The DoE has provided the ABS with a signed undertaking, which outlines agreed upon terms and conditions for the use and management of the information disclosed. 

The list was disclosed to the DoE on 28 October 2023.

Purpose of release:

The list will be used by the DoE for the purpose of the Capacity to Contribute project, which is to inform research, policy decisions and calculations of the amount of base recurrent funding to non-government schools from the Commonwealth Government under the Australian Education Act 2013.

ABS provided: 

• school name, school identifier and school sector;

• school geographic area;

• derived standardised scores for direct measure of income, for 2021, 2022 and 2023;

• derived scores for Capacity to Contribute for 2024;

• summary measures of parental income, and associated missingness, accuracy and volatility measures;

• average family size;

• linkage and coverage rates of administrative data;

• deemed reviewed scores and supporting metrics or quality indicators.

Released to: 

• Australian Government Department of Education

• New South Wales Department of Education

• Victorian Department of Education

• South Australian Department for Education and Child Development

• Western Australia Department of Education

• Tasmania Department for Education, Children and Young People

• Northern Territory Department of Education

• Australian Capital Territory Education Directorate

Name of Collection:

Release of List of Preschool Service Providers to State and Territory Education Departments

Other particulars:

Each receiving department has provided the ABS with a signed undertaking, which outlines agreed upon terms and conditions for the use and management of the information disclosed. Further information on this undertaking can be found in the attached Public Notification document.

The ABS has released the list annually since 2011.

The list was disclosed to 8 Jurisdictions on the 1 June 2023.

Purpose of release:

The list will be used by the departments for the purpose of achieving the outcomes and specified objectives of the National Information Agreement on Early Childhood Education and Care (NIA ECEC). The NIA ECEC aims to ensure the availability of a nationally consistent, quality information base for early childhood education and care, to support policy and program developments, and reporting and accountability requirements. The ABS has released the list annually since 2011.

ABS provided: 

For each business in the  list, the ABS provides:

• business name and address

• trading name

• management type

• service type and

• state/territory.

Released to: 

Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES).

Name of Collection: 

Release of Lists of Agricultural Farm Businesses to Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences.

Other particulars:

Three lists consisting of business contact details were sourced from the Australian Business Register (ABR) based ABS Business Register.

The lists were disclosed between 23 May and 29 May 2023.

Purpose of release:

The information contained in the lists will be used to support conduct of the 2023-24 ABARES Farm Surveys Program to supplement data holdings to avoid the need to collect this information in surveys.

ABS provided: 

• business contact details (including name, address, telephone number) for farm businesses selected in an ABARES Farm Surveys.

Subsequent list releases will comprise of:

• selected information (measure of size in ranged values, one or more geographic codes, latitude, and longitude coordinates, ANZSIC, secondary activity indicators, unique identifying number) for farm businesses responding to an ABARES Farm Survey.

Released to: 

Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES)

Name of Collection: 

Release of List of Agricultural Farm Businesses to Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences

Other particulars:

The list of de-identified farm businesses was sourced from the Australian Business Register (ABR) based ABS Business Register and will subsequently release contact details for a selection of those farm businesses.

The list was disclosed on 27 April 2023.

Purpose of release:

Data contained in the list will be used to support conduct of the 2023-24 ABARES Farm Surveys. Information will also be made available for selected farm businesses to supplement data holdings and avoid the need to collect this information in surveys.

ABS provided: 

• a unique identifying number (concorded to identifying numbers provided in previous years for the purposes of sampling methodology)
• a measure of size (Estimated Value of Agricultural Operations (EVAO) where available or Standardised BAS Total Sales (SBTS) where EVAO is not available)
• geographic codes (Australian Statistical Geography Standard, Edition 3)
• latitude and longitude co-ordinates
• an industry classification code (ANZSIC)
• a set of secondary activity indicators (where available).

Subsequent list releases will comprise of:

• business contact details (including name, address, telephone number) for farm businesses selected in an ABARES Farm Survey
• selected information (measure of size in ranged values, one or more geographic codes, latitude, and longitude coordinates, ANZSIC, secondary activity indicators, unique identifying number) for farm businesses responding to an ABARES Farm Survey.

Released to: 

National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA)

Name of Collection: 

Release of List of Agricultural Farm Businesses to the National Emergency Management Agency

Other particulars:

The list of de-identified farm businesses was sourced from the Australian Business Register (ABR) based ABS Business Register and will subsequently release characteristics of those farm businesses.

Purpose of release:

Data contained in the list will be analysed by NEMA to support their understanding of the impact of natural disasters on Australia’s agricultural industry and improve their ability to respond to such events. 

ABS provided: 

• an ABS-generated record identifier

• latitude and longitude co-ordinates

• geographic codes (Australian Statistical Geography Standard, Edition 3)

• an industry classification code (Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification)

• a measure of size (Estimated Value of Agricultural Operations (EVAO) where available or Standardised BAS Total Sales (SBTS) where EVAO is not available)

• area of holding (hectares)

• a set of secondary indicators of agricultural activities where available

For documents prior to 2020 see Releases prior to 2020 page.