HOT TOPICS



Food Security Data Workshop
Release of Tasmanian Food and Beverage Industry ScoreCard 2007-08
Community Indicators Seminar
Discussion Paper - Land Account, Australia
Understanding Data Quality - helping you make better decisions
Commonwealth health agencies endorse statistical integration principles
Interested in Tasmanian economic and social indicators?


FOOD SECURITY DATA WORKSHOP

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) recently hosted a Food Security Data Workshop in its Hobart Office, with the support of the Social Inclusion Unit, Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPAC) and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The workshop focused on current research and available data sources and gave government agencies and community organisations with an interest in food security research an opportunity to meet and discuss future approaches to monitoring food security issues in Tasmania.

Several presentations were made by people working in the area of Population Health (DHHS). Judy Seal spoke about the need to develop a monitoring and surveillance framework for food security in Tasmania, while Julie Williams outlined some of the available data sources and research already being done in this space. Louise Hawker (ABS) presented relevant ABS data sources and an overview of Tim Landrigan's project in WA, where he is currently outposted to the Environmental Health Directorate to work on a Market Basket Survey as part of the COAG Food Security Agenda. All of the presentations were well received and the workshop attendees enjoyed both lively discussions and great networking opportunities.

The workshop participants agreed that, while it is still some way off, there would be considerable merit in having a national approach for a standardised market basket survey. Different states are currently developing their own market basket surveys, although WA is working towards making theirs nationally applicable. A consistent nationwide framework would allow comparisons of food prices and availability over time, critical to identifying if regional and/or socio-economic differences exist, and ultimately to assess if food security is improving or becoming worse in Australia. At minimum, Tasmania should strive towards a statewide approach.

Workshop participants discussed data gaps and identified the following three priorities:

• production: what capacity does Tasmania have to meet its own food demand?
• access: How many people are suffering food insecurity? Who are they? And why are they?
• supply: What is available in terms of quality and price? How is it made available - what are the barriers to market entry and expansion? How does the lack of infrastructure impact on food security?

The Tasmanian Government and the Tasmanian Food Security Council have recently sought proposals from individual and coalitions of organisations across community, government and business to address the production, storage, distribution, access or consumption of nutritious food or develop monitoring and surveillance methods to measure food security in Tasmania. The aim of the Tasmanian Food Security Fund is to establish innovative responses across the State that will improve Tasmanians’ access to a supply of food that is sufficient, reliable, nutritious, safe, affordable and sustainable.
RELEASE OF TASMANIAN FOOD AND BEVERAGE INDUSTRY SCORECARD 2007-08

The Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment (DPIPWE) recently updated its Food ScoreCard to include 2007-08 output values for food produced in Tasmania. Based on a model developed by the South Australian Department of Primary Industries, the Tasmanian Food and Beverage Industry ScoreCard 2007-08 tracks annual growth in food production, examining the value creation chain and identifying which markets predominate. What is the real value of Tasmania’s food, agriculture and fishing industries? Given the importance of the sector to the State's economy it would be expected that there would be a precise answer. While the value of agricultural and fisheries production has been reported annually, the packaged and processed value of Tasmanian foods has not been reported for many years because of confidentiality issues and the difficulty of obtaining data from companies operating in States other than Tasmania. Similar data gaps for interstate trade in Tasmanian foods have also been overcome by using the ScoreCard methodology. For many items of food produced in Tasmania, interstate markets are often seen to be more important than markets overseas. The ScoreCard is informed by data sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and ABARE: gross value and quantity of production, export and import data, food retail and food service sales, food consumption data and Tasmanian population statistics.

Major findings in 2007-08

Farm gate/beach point sales increased by $169 million (14%) on the 2006-07 year. Increased dairy farm sales were a major contributor to that growth (+$98 million), along with vegetables (+$43 million), wine grapes (+$15 million) and cherries (+$15 million). Value added foods increased by $218 million on the previous year. Increased dairy products (+$106 million), beer (+$74 million) and vegetables (+ $53 million) were the main contributors to growth, offset by a decline in returns for some seafoods. The vast majority (90%) of Tasmania’s food trade revenue was generated by just 10 categories - dairy, confectionery, salmon, potatoes, beef, abalone, beer, lobster, carrots and onions. The significant growth in production was largely directed towards interstate markets. Interstate food sales were the major area of market growth (+$154 million) in the 12 months. Major contributors to that result were dairy ($115 million), beer ($66 million) and vegetables ($23 million). Overseas food exports did not change from 2006-07 (however in 2008-09 they fell $14 million). Tasmania continued to produce a large net food trade surplus - more than 74% of food production was destined for overseas and interstate customers. Trade income in 2007-08 exceeded $1.98 billion and that continued to underpin a substantial portion of Tasmania’s economy.

To access the scorecard go to http://www.dpiw.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/WebPages/LBUN-87M46Y?open

For more information contact Hugh Griffiths, Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment on (03) 6233 3058 or by email at Hugh.Griffiths@dpipwe.tas.gov.au

COMMUNITY INDICATORS SEMINAR

The Australian Bureau of Statistics recently hosted a Community Indicators Seminar with international presenters speaking live from Canada via a teleconference hook-up to a national audience of government agency and community organisation representatives.

Doug May (Memorial University, Newfoundland, Canada), Alton Hollett (Department of Finance, Executive Council, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada) and Robert Reid (Newfoundland and Labrador Statistics Agency, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada) gave an overview of the Newfoundland and Labrador System of Community Accounts. This included outlining recent developments in measuring community well-being, how changes are occurring to the way progress is measured, and linking community measures to broader measures (at a state or national level).

Tracey Chester (ABS) provided an update on Measures of Australia's Progress (MAP) (ABS cat. no. 1370.0), which is due for release on 15 September. MAP 2.0 will be more interactive and will feature a new-look homepage with links to headline indicators, improved navigation and a better overview of movement and progress. Keep a look out for the feature article: "What is progress?"

With the growing global movement to redefine progress, there is a sense that traditional measures of economic performance such as GDP, employment and income data do not adequately capture the full story of what is happening in society. Social as well as economic wellbeing must be taken into account. Mike Salvaris (RMIT) and Sue West (University of Melbourne) spoke about the Australian National Development Index (ANDI), a long term project being developed to measure Australia’s economic, social and environmental progress, including social inclusion indicators. This has been partly based on the Canadian Index of Well-being (CIW), a comprehensive framework for measuring national progress, and recognised as a world leader.

The broad vision and goals of the Australian National Development Index are to:

• enable Australians to share in the highest wellbeing status by identifying, developing and publicising measures that offer clear, valid and regular reporting on progress toward that goal and wellbeing outcomes Australians seek as a nation, and specifically:

• build a foundation to articulate a shared vision of what really constitutes sustainable wellbeing
• measure national progress toward, or movement away from, achieving that vision
• aid understanding and promote awareness of why society is moving in the direction it is moving
• stimulate discussion about the types of policies, programs, and activities that would move us closer and faster toward achieving wellbeing
• give Australians tools to promote wellbeing with policy shapers and decision makers
• inform policy by helping policy shapers and decision makers to understand the consequences of their actions for Australian wellbeing
• empower Australians to compare their wellbeing both with others in Australia and those around the world
• add momentum to the global movement for a more holistic way of measuring societal progress.

A National Community Indicators Workshop will be held in Sydney on 15 September in conjunction with the NatStats 2010 Conference (15-17 September). For more information about the workshop, please email inquiries@nss.gov.au
DISCUSSION PAPER - LAND ACCOUNT, AUSTRALIA

There is considerable interest in the development and implementation of environmental accounts in Australia and internationally. Despite this interest, there is a lack of knowledge and understanding of what environmental accounts actually mean and their potential for supporting environmental, social and economic policy.

Within Australia, a number of government agencies are involved in the production of environmental accounts and many other agencies have expressed an interest in developing them.

At present, the only active environmental account from Australia's national statistical agency, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, is the Water Account, which is produced four-yearly with the next edition due for release in December 2010. The long term goal of the ABS is for the development of integrated environmental accounts for:

• water
• energy
• land
• environment protection expenditure
• waste.

A Discussion Paper, Towards a Land Account, Australia - Drivers and Approaches, is currently being circulated to relevant people in government, academia and businesses across Australia. The Land Account Discussion Paper describes the main concepts of land accounting and its potential for policy use and decision making.

The Discussion Paper is seeking advice on how output from a Land Account could be used to answer key policy questions and is also seeking assistance in identifying and accessing appropriate information sources.

The Paper is available by contacting Mark Lound in the Industry and Land Statistics Section of the Australian Bureau of Statistics on (02) 6252 6325 or by email at mark.lound@abs.gov.au
UNDERSTANDING DATA QUALITY - HELPING YOU MAKE BETTER DECISIONS

The National Statistical Service (NSS), a community of government agencies led by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, encourages the use of statistical frameworks, principles and resources which can help data providers and users to realise the benefits of good data management through its DATAfitness program. DATAfitness encourages the use of statistical frameworks, principles and resources which can help data providers and users to realise the benefits of good data management.

Over the past few years, the call has been put out for public policies to be informed by good evidence. Statistical information is now answering that call. Statistical information has long been recognised as being good evidence, which places it at the heart of evidence-based policy.

As part of its DATAfitness program, the NSS has developed Data Quality Online (DQO), an easy-to-use online support system for data collectors, providers and users.

DQO is the first assistant of its kind in the world and provides clear and simple support to those involved in understanding data, and using it to make decisions.

DQO helps users to draft data quality statements, and can now be used to compile general purpose quality statements for a variety of data sets (e.g. administrative data, survey data) whilst continuing to support users to draft tailored, indicator-driven quality statements for Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Performance reporting.

The NSS officially launched the DQO in August 2010, in conjunction with the ABS. DQO is based on the nationally recognised ABS Data Quality Framework, which provides a consistent standard for describing the quality of data.

For further information on DQO or to take a look at the site, visit the NSS website. For more information on DATAfitness, visit www.nss.gov.au/DataQuality or email inquiries@nss.gov.au
COMMONWEALTH HEALTH AGENCIES ENDORSE STATISTICAL INTEGRATION PRINCIPLES

Agency secretaries from Commonwealth agencies spanning health portfolios have endorsed a set of principles for statistical integration.

The statistical integration project is a joint initiative of the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Department of Health and Ageing.

The principles, which were endorsed in February 2010, are:

1. Responsible agencies should treat data as a strategic resource and design and manage administrative data to support their wider statistical research use.

2. Agencies responsible for source data used in statistical data integration remain individually accountable for their security and confidentiality.

3. A responsible 'integrating authority' will be nominated for each data integration proposal.

4. Statistical integration should only occur when it provides significant overall benefit to the public.

5. Statistical data integration must be used for statistical and research purposes only.

6. Policies and procedures used in data integration must minimise any potential impact on privacy and confidentiality.

7. Statistical data integration will be conducted in an open and accountable way.

The integration project is being coordinated by a Cross Portfolio Statistical Integration Committee (CPSIC) and is currently developing governance and institutional arrangements to give effect to the integration principles.

For further information on the initiative, call Chris Carswell on (03) 6222 5848 or by email at chris.carswell@abs.gov.au
INTERESTED IN TASMANIAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL INDICATORS?

Here are some publications that contain the data you may be looking for..........

Tasmanian Key Indicators (TKI) (cat. no. 1304.6)
Tasmanian Key Indicators is a web-based product containing the latest social and economic summary data on Tasmania, including:

• labour force
• wages and prices
• tourism
• finance
• consumption and investment
• state accounts
• population
• living arrangements
• mortality
• education
• health.

Tasmanian Key Indicators features links to source publications on the ABS website to enable readers to explore particular topics in more detail. The data is also presented in an Excel spreadsheet in the Downloads tab.

It is released on a monthly basis.

Link to Tasmanian Key Indicators (cat. no. 1304.6)
Tasmanian State and Regional Indicators (TSRI) (cat. no. 1307.6)
Tasmanian State and Regional Indicators is a compendium of summary statistical information about Tasmania. Information is presented by topic, with more detailed data in Excel spreadsheets.

The publication contains summary commentary, tables, maps and graphs and some non-ABS and regional data are also included.

Topics covered include:

• labour
• economic activity
• industry
• population
• family and community
• household economic resources
• education
• housing
• transport
• crime and justice
• health
• environment.

There is also an index of feature articles.

It is released on a quarterly basis.

Link to Tasmanian State and Regional Indicators (cat. no. 1307.6)


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