1301.6.55.001 - Tasmanian Statistical News, Mar 2011  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 08/03/2011  Final
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HOT TOPICS



Recruitment underway for the 2011 Census of Population and Housing
Data integration principles involving Commonwealth data
Looking for a better way to find information on the ABS website?


RECRUITMENT UNDERWAY FOR THE 2011 CENSUS OF POPULATION AND HOUSING

The next national Census of Population and Housing will take place on 9 August 2011.

The Census aims to accurately measure the number of people in Australia on Census night, their key characteristics and the dwellings in which they live.

To assist in the preparation and operation of the Census, the ABS will recruit approximately 43,000 staff nationally, around 1000 in Tasmania.

Recruiting quality Collectors is vital to the success of the Census, therefore in 2011 we're actively seeking to attract high calibre applicants throughout the State.

In Tasmania we have appointed four District Managers and two Aboriginal Census Officers to head up our field force.

The second stage of recruitment is currently being completed with applications for Area Supervisor positions now being finalised. Area Supervisors will be responsible for selecting, recruiting and managing a team of eight to ten Collectors.

The third and final stage of recruitment for Census Collectors will be commencing shortly. Collectors are responsible for delivering and collecting forms from all dwellings in a specified area and are required to work from 1 July until 8 September 2011. Applications open on 9 April 2011 and close 5 May 2011.

The response to date has been extremely positive with the Census team in Tasmania working very closely with all tiers of Government, not for profit organisations, service clubs, volunteers associations and right throughout the general community, in all regions to promote the positions.

Further information about the positions is available on the ABS website at www.abs.gov.au/census or by telephone 1800 420 182.


Image: Georgia Chapman, ABS, spreading the message at the recent Bushy Park Show
Georgia Chapman, ABS, spreading the message at the recent Bushy Park Show

DATA INTEGRATION PRINCIPLES INVOLVING COMMONWEALTH DATA

Integrating data from different administrative and/or survey sources to provide new datasets provides more information than is available from the individual datasets taken separately.

Integrated datasets provide public benefits in terms of improved research, supporting good government policy making, program management and service delivery. They also create an important opportunity to expand the range of official statistics to better inform Australian society.

In February 2010, Australian Government Portfolio Secretaries endorsed a set of principles for data integration involving Commonwealth data. These principles are now available on the National Statistical Service website and cover:

  • Strategic Resource
  • Custodian's Accountability
  • Integrator's Accountability
  • Public Benefit
  • Statistical and Research Purposes
  • Preserving Privacy and Confidentiality
  • Transparency
The principles are part of an Australian Government approach to facilitate linkage of social, economic and environmental data for statistical and research purposes. A set of institutional and governance arrangements was developed to support the principles and was endorsed by the Secretaries Board in October 2010. The transition to the new arrangements is now underway. As part of this, a Secretariat to support the Cross Portfolio Data Integration Oversight Board has been established. The first meeting of the Oversight Board will be 24 March 2011.

For more information, please contact the Secretariat on (02) 6252 7614 or email inquiries@nss.gov.au

LOOKING FOR A BETTER WAY TO FIND INFORMATION ON THE ABS WEBSITE?

Have you ever wanted to know how to find all the information that ABS has about a particular topic, such as tourism, sport or children and youth? How would you go about searching for this on the ABS website?

The first thing that occurs to most would be to use the Search option on the Home Page at www.abs.gov.au. With our improved search tool this is a pretty good option and will return a list of linked results, from which you can choose to follow a path to a particular publication or other web page.
Image: Screen shot of ABS home page showing Search bar and Topics link


Another, less well known option is to go to the "Topics @ a Glance" pages, which were launched on 28 September 2010. They were previously known as "Theme" pages.

Information around a range of topics is drawn together under the broader headings of Economy, People, Environment & Energy, Industry and Regional. These pages are written by the people in the ABS who collect and publish the statistics from the various surveys, and who are most familiar with their own topics.
Image: screen shot showing links to Topics pages



Each of these links leads to a separate page that typically covers:
  • the range of statistics provided by the ABS on that topic, and related topics
  • the latest news from each area
  • latest publications available and
  • help about interpreting and using the statistics

Recently updated Topics @ a Glance pages that may be of interest are Gender and Disability and Carers.

ABS Tasmania also has a Topics page, which features links to published statistics about Tasmania, a noticeboard for the latest news, which includes information about upcoming training and seminars, and contact details for the services we provide.
Image: Screen shot showing Tasmanian Topics Page on ABS website

Next time you need to know "all about" a particular subject on the ABS website, why not try the Topics @ a Glance pages as a starting point?