THE DIRECTOR'S CUT


WELCOME TO THE FIRST ISSUE OF ABSTRACT FOR 2010

I hope everyone had an enjoyable festive season and a productive year so far.

It's been a busy start to 2010 here in the ACT Office.

We welcomed a number of much needed additions to the Office and also underwent a couple of internal re-shuffles. Of note is that Mariette O'Connell is now the acting Assistant Regional Director. Tim Power has moved into the role of Census Engagement Manager. Congratulations and good luck to Mariette and Tim in their new roles. There are also some new faces in our Census and Publication teams.

The Canberra-Queanbeyan Statistical District has reached the population milestone of just over 400,000 people. The Canberra-Queanbeyan Statistical District covers the areas of: Canberra (351,900 people) Queanbeyan (40,700 people) Palerang - Part A (10,600 people) Please refer to Regional Population Growth, Australia, 2008-09 (cat. no. 3218.0) for more detail.

It's full steam ahead with planning the 2011 Census here in the ACT Office. We are working closely with our NSW counterparts designing census collector workloads using mesh blocks.

We have also been out and about promoting and raising awareness for the 2011 Census. Some of you may have seen the ABS stall at the Multicultural Festival earlier this year. We had prime position being near the belly dancing stage which attracted many visitors. We used this opportunity to give away 1000 Census showbags which were snapped up by enthusiastic kids eager for the ABS branded lollipops, yo-yos and water bottles. We also had some keen data-hungry patrons who queried the ABS data that was on the display banner and requested figures for their suburbs of interest.They were promptly shown how to extract the data they needed from the ABS website. Please see Census information for photos taken on the day.

The ACT Office provided the venue for the February Chamber of Commerce "Business after Business" event. This well attended event brought together personalities from the Canberra small business community and as host, the ACT Office showcased the ABS Census products and services, in particular, the functionality of CData Online and Map Stats using local examples. Please see Business after Business for a selection of photos taken at this event.

In February, we also released our quarterly indicators publication, In fACT, cat. no 1308.8 . Over recent issues we have included special articles about topical themes on the Australian capital Region as well as provide more detail and commentary on headline indicators.

Finally, I am very pleased to announce that Ms Fiona Tearne has been outposted to the Chief Minister's Department. Working alongside the ACT Demographer, Ms Gemma Wood, Fiona is working hard on making sense of the myriad of data around the economic and fiscal implications of the population in the ACT with special consideration to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the ageing population. Fiona will also be assisting with the implemention of the ACT Information Development Plan, 2008 - 12011, cat. no. 1344.8.55.003. An outposted officer is one of the best ways the ABS has to provide statistical support to State and Territory Government agencies. If you would like more information please contact me on act.office@abs.gov.au .

We would welcome any feedback about this electronic ABStract. Please email us at act.office@abs.gov.au with any suggestions including contributions for future issues.

Beidar Cho

Acting ACT Regional Director