1344.8.55.002 - ABStract, Statistics News, Australian Capital Territory, Jan 1999  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 31/10/2000   
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Contents

A Message from the Regional Director
Recent Major Releases
New Releases
Expected Major Releases
Entry Points to the ABS ACT Office


A MESSAGE FROM THE REGIONAL DIRECTOR

Since the September 1998 issue there have been a number of changes to the ACT Office and also statistical developments which have been highlighted in this issue of ABStract:

  • Firstly we have a new Assistant Regional Director. John Connor has moved to the ACT Office from the Public Finance area of the ABS. John brings with him a wealth of experience in the public finance field and economic statistics generally. Some of you will have met John already, and received assistance from him. I welcome John to his new position, and welcome the depth of experience in the economic statistics field which John brings to the ACT Office.
  • Secondly the ACT Office is on the move! Current accommodation is unsuitable and we will be moving to Central Office at Belconnen, or to another site in Civic if a suitable site can be found. This move is currently being planned for June 1999.
  • The ACT Office presented its annual report and raised several issues for discussion at senior management level, including the impact of various ABS reviews and government policy initiatives on statistical services being provided to the smaller States and Territories.
  • Submissions for the October 1999 ACT State Supplementary Survey have been received from ACT Government Departments and an assessment process is currently underway.
  • The assistance of ACT Government Departments in the review of the ABS Household Survey Program is appreciated. Work is now under way to develop more specific proposals based in input received from all Commonwealth, State and Territory government agencies.
  • The working group on Indigenous Identification in Administrative data collections met on 9 December 1998. Tony Barnes from ABS NCATSIS attended as a guest speaker and spoke about the latest ABS papers on indigenous identification. An ACT response to one of the discussion papers was an action item arising from this meeting.
  • Data collection for the project looking at the quality of indigenous identification in hospital separation records at Canberra and Calvary hospitals is now complete. A report is expected to be available early in March/April 1999.

If you require additional information or background papers on the above topics, please contact me on (02) 6207 0283. I also encourage you to contact me on areas where the ABS can improve its service or provide further assistance.

Dalma Jacobs
Regional Director
ACT Office, Australian Bureau of Statistics
RECENT MAJOR RELEASES
(excluding regular monthly and quarterly releases)

This listing shows ABS publications that have been released over the past 3 months. For release details of regular (monthly and quarterly) publications, please refer to Release Advice (ABS Cat 1105.0) issued to subscribers each Tuesday and Friday, or 1102.0 issued monthly.

General

1329.0Australia's Wine and Grape Industry, 1998 (Dec)

Census of Population and Housing

2033.0.30.0011996 Census of Population and Housing: Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA), Australia (& also for each State and Territory) (Oct)


Demography and Social Statistics

3301.0Births, Australia, 1997 (Nov)
3302.0Deaths, Australia, 1997 (Dec)
3311.8Demography, ACT, 1997 (Dec)
4123.8ACT's Young People, 1996 (Dec)
4153.0How Australians Use Their Time, 1997 (Dec)
4177.0Participation in Sport and Physical Activity, Australia, 1997-98 (Oct)
4315.0Apparent Consumption of Foodstuffs, Australia, 1997-98 (Nov)
4359.0How Australians Measure Up (Oct)

Economic Statistics

5501.0Government Financial Estimates, Australia, 1998-99 (Nov)
5506.0Taxation Revenue, Australia, 1997-98 (Dec)
5513.0Public Sector Financial Assets and Liabilities, June 1998 (Nov)

Labour Statistics

6101.0Labour Statistics, Australia, 1998 (Dec)

Business and Industry

7217.0Directory of Agricultural Statistics, 1998 (Oct)
8221.1Manufacturing, NSW and ACT, 1996-97 (Nov)
8225.0Manufacturing, Australia, 1996-97 (Dec)
8679.0Film and Video Production and Distribution, Australia, 1996-97(Nov)
8680.0Radio and Television Services, Australia, 1996-97 (Nov)
8697.0Performing Arts Industry, Australia, 1996-97 (Oct)
8698.0Waste Management Industry, Australia, 1996-97 (Nov)
9309.0Motor Vehicle Census, Australia, Oct 1997 (Oct)


Collections

The third meeting of this working group was held in 9 December 1998.

The hospital project was discussed. The purpose of this project is to develop, pilot, evaluate and document a data quality control procedure for assessing the completeness of Indigenous identification in hospital separation records. The survey has been completed and a report is being prepared for the Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Council (AHMAC) in March 1999. For more information about this project please contact Barbara Gray 08 89432 147 or barbara.gray@abs.gov.au.

Barry McCarthy from the ACT Registrar General's Office advised he has visited local funeral directors explaining the new procedures and the purpose of collecting indigenous data. He has followed this up by distributing a brochure produced by the ABS to remind funeral directors of the importance of their contribution to improving the quality of indigenous administrative data.

New Birth and Death registrations forms were introduced in June 1998. Initial indications are that there is a high response rate to the Indigenous question. It was decided that there would be a quality audit of ACT births and deaths data, with deaths being audited before births. For births it was decided to wait (approximately) six months to see if the new birth registration form increased coverage before verifying with a secondary source.
For deaths, three methods were suggested for the audit:

1. An administrative audit. Follow the administrative process from the first to the last step.

2. Look at how the data is captured, how forms completed (difficult considering the traumatic circumstances).


3. Check with a secondary source. Tap into knowledge within the community (for example: known deaths within a period), and cross reference with indigenous information on the Registry database.


One option discussed was a combination of items 1 and 3 for the purposes of the audit.

Tony Barnes from the ABS NCATSIS unit attended as a guest speaker and introduced the latest ABS papers on indigenous identification:

Directions in Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Statistics,
Plan for Improving Indigenous Statistics from Administrative Collections, and
A Proposed Survey Strategy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Statistics.

Tony covered issues such as increased Indigenous identification for the 1996 Census, the potential use of Indigenous community leaders as respondents in Indigenous surveys and contributed to discussions about the quality audit of ACT births and deaths data.

Action items arising from this meeting included the need for an ACT response the discussion paper A Proposed Survey Strategy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Statistics. The next meeting is to be held in March/April 1999.

Introduction of Chain Volume Measures

Chain volume measures have been introduced in the Australian National Accounts. The recent review of the National Accounts, SNA93, included a recommendation that annually-reweighted chain volume measures be compiled to aid the analysis of economic statistics. SNA93 argued that chain volume measures provide better indicators of volume growth than constant price estimates for most economic statistics relating to expenditure and production.

ABS studies have shown that annually reweighted chain volume measures would have had a substantial impact on the growth in volume of some important components of expenditure on GDP, notable private gross fixed capital expenditure on equipment and imports. (although these effects were largely off-setting and the change would have had little impact on the growth in volume of Australia's GDP).

For example unlike constant price estimates used previously, annually linked and reweighted chain volume measures allow for changes to the prices of computer equipment relative to the prices of other goods and services. It is the price relativities that determine the weight given to each component of a volume index. Accordingly as computer equipment prices have fallen relative to other goods and services, chain volume measures would be able to take account of these changes in price relativity.

Full details of the issues associated with chaining are outlined in Information Paper: Introduction of Chain Volume Measures in the Australian National Accounts (Cat. no. 5248.0).
NEW RELEASES

Demography, ACT, 1997 (3311.8)

This publication provides a comprehensive demographic overview of the ACT. It contains tables and commentary on ACT trends in population, births, deaths, marriages, divorces, and migration. Components of population change, estimated resident population and various demographic rates are reported, and comparisons are made across States and Territories. Selected statistics are presented for Statistical Local Areas.

Census of Population and Housing: Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA), Australia (2033.030.001)

SEIFA96 is a first issue which provides lifestyle groupings of Australia's communities based on data from the 1996 Census. There are five indexes which group Australians according to their social and economic conditions. These are:
    Urban Index of Advantage
    Rural Index of Advantage
    Index of Disadvantage
    Index of Economic Resources
    Index of Education and Occupation

SEIFA96 provides information and rankings for a wide range of geographic areas from small areas such as Collection District (an area made up of approximately 200 households), Postal Areas, Local Government Areas and Statistical Local Areas to large areas such as Statistical Subdivisions.

SEIFA96 is available as a stand-alone electronic product which contains the indexes and a fully documented software package which facilitates the manipulation of the indexes and as an add-on module for use with CDATA96. This product is separately available for each State and Australia.

ACT's Young People, 1996 (4123.8)

This publication provides a range of statistics on the ACT's young people. Compiled mainly from 1996 Census data, the profile includes sections on population, cultural diversity, living arrangements, education, working life and income.

How Australians Use Their Time, 1997 (4153.0)

This publication contains a selection of mainly national level data on time spent in paid work, unpaid household work and shopping, caring for children and frail, sick and disabled people, community participation, education, leisure and personal maintenance, by usual residents of private households aged 15 years and above.

Participation in Sport and Physical Activity, Australia, 1997-98 (4177.0)

This publication contains details on the number and characteristics of people who participate in a range of sport and physical activities at national and State level, by age, sex, and frequency of participation.

Earlier editions contained expenditure data for individual sport and physical activities, and participation by children aged 5-14 in school organised and club organised activities, by age and State.

Motor Vehicles Census, Australia, Oct 1997 (9309.0)

This publication presents, for each State and Territory, the number of vehicles on register by type of vehicle (passenger vehicles, light commercial vehicles, rigid trucks, articulated trucks, non-freight carrying trucks, buses and motor cycles), year of manufacture, make, gross vehicle mass, fuel type and average age of vehicle.

Manufacturing, NSW and ACT, 1996-97 (8221.1)

The final results from the 1996-97 Manufacturing Survey are presented in the publication. Included are details of employment; wages and salaries, turnover, and industry gross product classified by Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification class for NSW. Also included are data classified by employment size and data relating to exports for NSW manufacturers; as well as employment; wages and salaries, turnover, and industry gross product data for the ACT at the industry subdivision level. For NSW, this publication also shows employment, wages and salaries and turnover for Statistical Divisions.

Radio and Television Services, Australia, 1996-97 (8680.0)

This publication contains information about the radio and television services industries. The data include: major sources of income and components of expenditure; characteristics of employment; key characteristics by State; performance ratios; and selected commodity details such as type of programming format and production costs.

Performing Arts Industry, Australia, 1996-97 (8697.0)

This publication contains detailed information about the performing arts industry in Australia. It includes sources of income and expenditure, characteristics of employment and persons working, business size analysis, State and Territory data, as well as a range of performance ratios for the industry.
EXPECTED MAJOR RELEASES
(excluding regular monthly and quarterly releases)

This listing shows ABS publications which are expected to be released over the coming quarter, the expected month of release is shown in brackets.

General

1101.0Catalogue of Publications and Products, 1999 (Feb)
1132.0Directory of Transport Statistics, 1998 (Jan)
1301.0Year Book, Australia, 1999 (Feb)
1302.0Pocket Year Book, Australia, 1999 (Feb)
1309.0Australia at a Glance, 1999 (Feb)
8152.0Year 2000 Problem, Australia, Oct 1998 (Jan)

Demography and Social Statistics

1313.8Regional Statistics, ACT, 1999 (Mar)
1365.8Public Transport Usage and Migration Patterns, ACT, October 1998 (Mar)
3218.0Regional Population Growth, Australia, 1997-98 (Jan)
3303.0Causes of Death, Australia, 1997 (Jan)
3412.0Migration, Australia, 1997-98 (Feb)
4119.0Children, Australia: A Social Report, 1998 (Jan)
4220.0Schools, Australia, 1999 (Jan)
4224.0Education and Training, Australia, 1998 (Jan)
4327.0National Survey of Mental Health and Well-being of Adults: User's Guide, 1997 (Jan)
4335.0Health Insurance Survey, Australia, June 1998 (Mar)
4377.0National Health Survey: Uses of Medications, Australia, 1995 (Jan)
4708.0Occasional Paper: Population Issues, Indigenous Australians, 1996 (Feb)

Economic Statistics

4603.0Environment Protection Expenditure, Australia, 1995-96 and 96-97 (Mar)
5204.0Australian System of National Accounts, 1997-98 (Feb)
5672.0Information Paper: Expanding the Use of ATO Data to Improve ABS Economic Statistics (Oct)
6422.0Information Paper: Producer Price Index Developments, 1997-98 (Feb)
6440.0A Guide to the Consumer Price index, 1998 (Jan)

Labour Statistics

6245.0Successful and Unsuccessful Job Search Experience, Australia, Jul 1998 (Jan)
6265.0Underemployed Workers, Australia, Sep 1998 (Mar)
6286.0.30.001Australia's Employment and Unemployment Patterns, Unit Record File, Sep 1994 to Sep 1997 (Jan)
6292.0.45.00Labour Force, Revised Seasonally Adjusted and Trend Data, Australia, Feb 1998 (Mar)
6306.0Employee Earnings and Hours, Australia, May 1998 (Mar)
6307.0Employee Earnings and Hours, States and Australia - Data Service, May 1998 (Mar)

Business and Industry

1275.0Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) - Concepts, Sources and Methods, 1999 (Feb)
4144.0Business Sponsorship, Australia, 1996-97 (Jan)
7506.0Agricultural Industries, Financial Statistics, Australia, 1997-98 (Jan)
8132.0.45.001Business Register Consultancy - Management Units, Sep 1998 (Jan)
8140.0Business Operation and Industry Performance, Australia, 1996-97 (Mar)
8140.0.40.002Summary of Industry Performance, 1996-97 (Jan)
8145.0Telecommunication Services, Australia, 1996-97 (Jan)
8201.0Manufacturing Industry, Australia, 1997-98 (Mar)
8401.0Mining, Electricity and Gas Operation, Australia, 1997-98 (Feb)
8772.0Private Sector Construction Industry, Australia, 1996-97 (Jan)
9312.0.30.001Transtats, Australia on CD-ROM (Nov)

ENTRY POINTS TO THE ABS ACT OFFICE

National Dial a Statistic line1900 986 400
    (for main economic indicators other than CPI)
(75c per minute)
CPI Information line1902 981 074
(75c per minute)
Information Inquiries:
    Telephone
02 6252 6627
    Fax
02 6207 0282
Bookshop and Client Service Centre9th Floor, FAI House
197 London Cct
CANBERRA CITY 2601
Postal Address:PO Box 10
BELCONNEN ACT 2616
Internet Web Site Address:www.abs.gov.au
Regional Director: Dalma Jacobs02 6207 0283
Assistant Regional Director: John Connor02 6207 0244
Bookshop and Information Services Manager: Nives Marelic02 6207 0326
Statistical Services Manager: Will Blythe02 6205 0032
Population Census Inquiries: Bill Syms02 6207 0285