Introduction Statistics are widely used in the development and evaluation of social policy. Closing the Gap indicators, studies on the effectiveness of drugs being considered for inclusion in the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), analyses of National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) results and the evaluation of welfare interventions such as income management all include statistics...

Over 400,000 households have completed the online Census since the website was restored yesterday afternoon. The chief statistician of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, David Kalisch, says new security measures have been put in place in the wake of Tuesday's 'denial of service' attack and hardware failure on the site. In an interview with AM's...

Commenced in 2001, the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey is a nationally representative longitudinal study of Australian households. The study is funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS; previously Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) and is managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social...

This report presents statistics on the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program (NBCSP). This monitoring report is the first to measure the NBCSP using NBCSP key performance indicators. Of those who were invited to participate in the NBCSP between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2014, 37% undertook screening. For those screened in 2014, 7% had...

New England is an electorate that has faced a rapidly rising unemployment rate over the last 3 years. It has seen unemployment rise 2.7% since the last election. Over the same period the national unemployment rate has risen 0.1%. The number of unemployed has increased by 2,094 since the last election. This rapid rise in...