1. Australia’s national agricultural statistics review Sarah Kiely, Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Experiences with Partnerships 1, IAOS 2014, 8-10 October 2014 Da Nang Vietnam

2. Background to the review Agriculture and agricultural statistics internationally: Food security Sustainable development Statistical quality and quantity in decline Role of agriculture in Australia Australia’s approach to agricultural statistics: ABS and ABARES main producers of official agricultural statistics

3. National Agricultural Statistics Review (NASR) Opportunity to strengthen collaborative relationships between key statistical producers Build upon outcomes of internal reviews Aimed to identify: Priority information needs Information gaps Overlaps and inconsistencies in existing statistics Opportunities for improvement

4. Framework for consultation - Enduring goals for Australian agriculture

5. Stakeholder engagement - Overview Multiple phases and modes of engagement Initial consultation phase: Internal ABS and ABARES consultation Discussion paper: Public consultation (including submission process) Secondary consultation phase: Consolidation of input from initial consultation phase Preliminary findings paper: Further public consultation (including public forums, submission process)

6. Stakeholder engagement – Contribution of stakeholders to preliminary findings

7. Preliminary findings – High priority information needs Information needs varied by stakeholder groups and by the enduring goals Needs of industry less well met than those of government Majority of priority information needs are partially met by existing statistical assets: One-third of stakeholders needs fully met A small number of needs not met at all Reasons needs not being met: Barriers (i.e. cost, capability) Structural issues with the assets Availability of specific information

8. Preliminary findings – Information need by enduring goal

9. Preliminary findings – Key issue themes Respondent burden Poor relationships between data collectors and respondents Contributing to reduced data quality Data quality cost, timeliness, coherence, accuracy, relevance, interpretability, accessibility, institutional environment Statistical infrastructure Methods, standards and frameworks, classifications, physical systems, people capability Coordination and governance Leadership, roles and responsibilities, principles of an effective statistical system

10. Preliminary findings – Opportunities for efficiencies Data collection Online surveys, real-time data collection, integration Data management Common standards Dissemination Improved electronic communication, ‘one stop shop’, improved reporting capability, concordant data Coordination Collection harmonisation, joint ABS-ABARES data collection, integration and analysis, administrative data Statistical capability

11. Conclusion and next steps A modern, adaptive and responsive agricultural statistical system for Australia High quality agricultural official statistics: Role of statistical leadership Partnerships and collaboration Final NASR recommendations due for release by end 2014 Framework for the assessment, coordination and governance