The National Statistical Service (NSS)

The National Statistical Service (NSS)
Working together for an informed Australia
What is the NSS?
The National Statistical Service (NSS) is a community of government agencies working to build a rich statistical picture in order to
better inform Australia. The NSS embraces all levels of government, and includes all official bodies involved in the production and
use of official statistics. It also includes custodians of administrative datasets which contribute to official statistics.
Australia’s statistical system
Australian
Statistical System
National
Statistical Service
Australian
Bureau
of Statistics
To reach its full potential,
statistical resources need to
be recognised as an asset.
Coordinating Australia’s statistics
Statistics are fundamental to good
government, to the delivery of public
services and to decision-making in all
sectors of society. Official statistics are
defined as those statistics produced by
government departments and agencies
including statistics collected by surveys
or from administrative systems.
A wide range of statistics are being
produced across all jurisdictions through
statistical collections, administrative
and transactional data. To get the best
value from these assets requires a more
holistic and coordinated approach to the
production of national statistics.
What is the ABS’s role in the NSS?
The Australian Bureau of Statistics
(ABS) has a legislated responsibility to
help address the issues arising from
multiple official statistical producers, by
co-ordinating the operations of official
bodies in the collection, compilation and
dissemination of statistics and related
information. (ABS Act 1975 - Section 6 (1)(C)
The ABS has responded by creating the
NSS to help coordinate the production of
statistics in government agencies, which
in turn supports the broader Australian
statistical system.
What is the Australian statistical
system?
The NSS exists as part of a broader
Australian statistical system. The
Australian statistical system includes
all users and producers of statistics
in non-government sectors such as
businesses, not-for-profit organisations,
research institutions and members of
the Australian public, as well as users
and producers in government bodies (see
diagram left).
How do government agencies
become involved in the NSS?
All government agencies who collect
and use statistical data can participate
as members of the NSS community.
Agencies wishing to contribute to the
development of the NSS can contact
inquiries@nss.gov.au or through the
website on www.nss.gov.au.

The four elements of the NSS
Four elements form the foundation
of a highly functioning NSS: values,
content, capability and statistical
structure. Progressing these
elements will lead to a community of
government agencies building a rich
statistical picture for a better informed
Australia and will benefit all official
statistical producers and users.
Elements of the NSS
Capability
Producers and users are able to
manage data, make it accessible
and use it well.
Governments and the community
value and support high integrity
information
Values
What are the objectives of the NSS?
The NSS aims to improve the quality and
usefulness of official statistical assets.
The NSS objectives are:
• optimising and improving Australia’s
essential statistical assets for
evidence-based policy development,
evaluation and research;
• improved and more effective statistical
infrastructure and services; and
• to increase statistical capability of
producers and users of statistics.
Public information sources are
fully used to provide a statistical
picture of the economy, society
and environment.
Content
A community of
government agencies
building a rich statistical
picture for a better
informed Australia
Statistical Infrastructure
Statistical standards, policies
and tools are shared to maximise
the value of investment, reduce
provider load and support
integrated statistics
How does the ABS work with other
government bodies to progress the
NSS objectives?
• The ABS coordinates and supports a
number of statistical governance
forums nationally and across states to
discuss statistical priorities and strategies
to improve the NSS.
• The ABS provides an Outposted Officer
program to work ‘in house’ with key
departments across governments on a
range of strategic and statistical activities.
These include facilitating access to
statistics, enhancing statistical capability,
providing data quality advice and
strengthening statistical coordination with
host agencies.
• To increase the statistical capability of
users and producers of statistics, the ABS
provides an extensive range of statistical
training programs to develop skills
on specific fields of statistics (e.g.
understanding demographic statistics),
statistical production and analysis.
• Free online resources, information
sheets and tutorials are available on
the NSS and ABS websites to inform
on data integration and confidentiality,
data quality, understanding statistics and
statistical concepts.
• Conferences, seminars and
workshops are coordinated by the ABS
where leading experts and users come
together to raise awareness of the value
of data, discuss future statistical priorities
and share ideas and experiences.
• The ABS promotes statistical
developments through the NSS News
newsletter.
www.nss.gov.au