Transcript Mr Geoff Allen - National Statistical Service

NatStats 2010 Conference
Draft Recommendations
Preamble
The world is becoming more complex and interconnected.
Australia’s changing information priorities (such as for COAG
performance reporting, State of Environment reporting,
regulatory reform), require a rethink of the purpose of existing
statistical infrastructure to ensure we are measuring what
counts, and not simply using what is available.
To ensure a relevant national statistical system in the 21st
Century, strategic alliances within the community of statistical
providers will be critical. Collaboration will improve the
accessibility and visibility of government information to enable
more open, consultative and participative government, and a
better informed society.
To this end, the conference recommends that producers of key
statistics across all levels of government and the private
sector:
Recommendations
1. Greater focus should be placed on
measuring outcomes in the economic, social,
demographic, environment and wellbeing
domains. Improved outcome measures and
distributions are required for:
– our quality-of-life
– household income and wealth
– sustainability, including our impact on ecosystems and natural resources (an holistic
complement to GDP)
– the impact of Australia’s innovation on
productivity and international competitiveness.
Recommendations
2. Better understand and measure the causal
pathways and transitions which lead to
improved economic, social, demographic,
environment and wellbeing outcomes.
Deeper analysis of existing data and
utilisation of longitudinal collections will aid
better policy development for:
– the multi-dimensional nature of our complex
lives
– coincidence of social gradients and the
incidence of multiple disadvantage, especially
for the Indigenous community
– influencing health risk factors to prevent chronic
health conditions.
Recommendations
3. Statistical users and producers of key
statistical series must work together to use
and promote suitable evidence for policy
design, delivery, analysis and evaluation.
Any shortcomings in the adequacy of the
data should be explained to users.
Recommendations
4. More relevant and timely statistical
information needs to be made available and
searchable to support innovation. This will
foster additional research, allowing Australia
to reap productivity benefits into the future.
Governments should support this by:
– increasing the level of connectivity and
collaboration on innovation;
– lead the enhancement of frameworks and
standards in data creation and use.
Recommendations
5. Improving the quality (such as relevance,
timeliness, accuracy, coverage, coherence, and
useability) of economic, social progress,
environmental and wellbeing statistics
should be a priority for producers of key
statistical series. In particular:
– enhance measures of technological advances,
especially in ICT
– improve the measurement of non-market services
– consult with the community to understand
community needs
– partner with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Peoples to set statistical priorities
– enrich statistics about ‘at risk’ population groups.
Recommendations
6. Producers of statistical data should improve
the availability of data about local
communities, to:
– support policy development and planning for
regional infrastructure needs
– deliver services more efficiently in these small
areas
– empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
peoples to more effectively govern their
communities.
Recommendations
7. As Australia’s economy is influenced heavily
by our trading partners, Australia should seek
to:
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address key information gaps, consistent with best
practice principles
influence international developments in statistics to
promote internationally comparable data.
Equally, statistical producers in Australia
should ensure we adopt national standards
and frameworks which are compatible with
international practice, and refresh them in a
timely manner to reflect Australian conditions.
Recommendations
8. Producers of official statistics at all levels of
government should follow best practice to
ensure compatibility of concepts, standards
and classifications, and eliminate wasteful
duplication. Best practice should be
identified in a national statistical policy and
should:
–
–
cover data collections, regardless of how
these data are collected (administrative data,
surveys, censuses etc)
include the principles for creating and
managing data.
Recommendations
9. Leverage datasets to unlock all of their
potential to shed light on key policy
questions (to understand the interactions
between our population, economy, and the
environment). Data producers should:
– treat data as a strategic resource, and design and
manage all administrative data to support greater
statistical and research use
– link data in a safe and effective environment
(which respects the confidentiality and privacy of
Australians)
– accept that additional investment (in terms of time
and money) will have long term benefits to
Australians (such as when the link between Rubella
and deafness was uncovered)
Recommendations
10.As statistics underpin our democracy,
Australians must be able to critically
evaluate and understand data. Users and
producers of statistics should strongly
advocate for enhanced statistical education
that will lead to improved statistical literacy.
Recommendations
11. New and enhanced statistical infrastructure
is required as a matter of priority in order to
identify patterns in the vast amount of
information available, rapidly predict
consequences, and act on them. Business
and statistical organisations should develop
and share tools to:
– enhance visibility, widen access and improve
comprehensibility of statistical data, as a means of
providing new evidence from existing data, especially at
local levels. (if you can better see it, you can better act on it)
– enhance transferability of data and security of data, to
minimise risk
– collect and manage data, to minimise burden on businesses
and households.