Appendix D Terms of reference of the Panel

The Australian Statistician has established an expert panel to provide an independent and high-level view of the quality of selected statistical outputs from the 2021 Census of Population and Housing. The Panel will request and review all information it considers relevant in order to report on the quality of 2021 Census statistics and their fitness for use.

The Panel will provide a written report by the end of June 2022 (to coincide with the first release of Census data) to the Australian Statistician giving its view on broad aspects of quality of Census outputs, having considered issues related to Census design, enumeration, processing, quality assurance etc. The quality will be assessed using outputs from the 2016 and 2011 Censuses as a benchmark as well as relevant secondary data sources.

It is planned to make the report publicly available, so that government, the community and other stakeholders can make their own informed judgments about the fitness-of-purpose of 2021 Census data for their uses.

The membership of the Panel is:

• Chair – Professor Sandra Harding, AO, Emeritus Professor, James Cook University and former Chair of the Australian Statistics Advisory Council (2001-2006)
• Ms Leanne Liddle, Director of the Aboriginal Justice Unit, Northern Territory Government Department of the Attorney-General and Justice
• Professor Peter McDonald, AM, Emeritus Professor, School of Demography, The Australian National University
• Mr Peter Morrison, former Assistant Chief Statistician of Canada who was responsible for running the Canadian Census
• Mr Dennis Trewin, AO, former Australian Statistician (2000-2007)
• Mr Stephen Walters, Chief Economist, New South Wales Treasury, and member of the Australian Statistical Advisory Council

It is envisaged that the Panel will be active from October 2021 until the end of June 2022, when the Post Enumeration Survey processing will be complete and the first statistical releases from the 2021 Census occur in June 2022

The Panel shall be free to request any information from the ABS it sees as relevant in order for it to form its view, and the ABS shall comply with all such requests in a timely manner (as long as they are consistent with relevant legislation such as the Census and Statistics Act).

The Panel will be supported by a Secretariat, headed by Sue Taylor, Director, Census Data Quality.

The Panel have examined each of the four aspects of the Terms of Reference and are comfortable that these are covered throughout the report.