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The ABS operates within the confines of its legislation, the expectation Government has of it, and the resources available to it including:
- an average annual budget of around $259m per year, excluding the Census and transforming ABS for the future.
- around 3,000 ongoing staff including interviewers.
Over the last 15 years the ABS has had falling resources to deal with a bigger and more complex world to measure. In contrast, staff numbers in the wider APS have increased during this time.
The ABS annual budget is a very cyclical operating budget, which peaks every five years due to the Census. About 10% of the ABS annual budget is user funded in any one year, i.e. ABS receives funding from other agencies to expand its statistical program. However, the level of user funding for the demographic, economic, social and environment programs varies significantly.
In the 2015–16 Federal Budget, the Government agreed to additional funding of $257m to the ABS for critical infrastructure enhancements to support ABS transformation over the five-year period to 2019–20. This comprises $190m operating expense and $67m capital injection. Following the transformation, the ABS operating budget will reduce by 10% which is approximately $25m per annum.
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