1. Reducing Respondent BurdenThe Australian Bureau of Statistics Experience Integrated Economic Statistics / Joint FSO-UNSD work session, 6-8 June 2007, Bern, Switzerland Presentation by Rob Edwards (IMF) on behalf of the Australian Bureau of Statistics

2. Introduction • ABS has had considerable success in reducing respondent burden in recent years • These have been achieved through • Increased use of administrative data • Smarter methodologies • Most focus has been on business surveys • Provider load is now about 33% lower than 10 years ago

4. Legal and political mandates • Under the Australian Bureau of Statistics Act 1975 the ABS has a mandate to coordinate statistical activities across government • 1996 Small Business Deregulation Taskforce • Target of 20% reduction in ABS respondent burden • Established Statistical Clearing House • Creation of Business Surveys Charter • Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) established in 1998

5. Legal and political mandates (cont) • Introduction of A New Tax System in 2000 • Australian Business Register (ABR) • Australian Business Number (ABN) • Business Activity Statement (BAS) • Income Tax Act amended in 2005 to allow for expanded ABS use of business income tax data • 2006 Report of Reducing Regulation TF • Standard Business Reporting Initiative (SBR) • Income Tax Act likely to be amended to allow for expanded ABS use of personal income tax data

6. Strategic initiatives • Business Statistics Innovation Program (2002 to 2005) • A significant organisational, technological and methodological change program • Several objectives, including “improving provider relations, improved reporting mechanisms and reduced provider load” • Economic Statistics Data Centre (ESDC) created to give a particular focus to ABS’s business provider issues

8. Strategic initiatives (cont) • Total approach management of relationships with providers • Provider Integration Management System • Better targeting of non-response follow-up • State-of-art call centre for provider contact • Input Data Warehouse • New (smarter) estimation systems • Multi-modal data capture • (use of e-census for 2006 Census)

9. Examples of the use of administrative data • Business income tax data • Business activity statement data • Australian Business Register data • Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) data • Personal income tax data

10. Issues associated with use of administrative data • Need for strong relationships • Risk assessment and mitigation strategies • Ensuring proper processes in collecting agencies • Understanding and ensuring data quality • Frameworks to assess quality of admin data • Metadata, including quality metadata • National Data Network initiative

12. Questions