NSW Treasury, the Department of Information Technology and Management (DITM), and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) are exploring the feasibility of an all-of-Government licence for ABS statistical data through the on-line AusStats service. AusStats provides the ABS standard product range on-line via the Web, including all new releases daily. An over view is attached

To establish the possible costs and benefits of this option, estimates of the expected usage of the AusStats service by NSW government agencies are required. In order to derive such estimates, the ABS, Treasury and DITM are coordinating a 3-month trial of AusStats for all NSW government agencies. For the duration of the trial the ABS has agreed to provide AusStats access at no cost to agencies. The trial started on 8 October 2001 and is scheduled to end on 4 January 2002.

Each agency's usage will be monitored for the 3 month trial. While participating agencies will not be charged for their usage, the ABS, Treasury and DITM request that agencies use the service in a manner which matches actual business needs and recognises the AustStats pricing structure. (AusStats charges the cover price for the first download of any document, and 10 per cent of the cover price for subsequent downloads of that document.) This will ensure meaningful results which in turn will help determine whether an all-of-government licence is warranted.

For the duration of the trial, the ABS will allow users from recognised NSW government agency domain-names through to the charged part of their website, www.abs.gov.au. This will allow all staff with workplace web access to down-load publications, time series, census data and data-cubes from the ABS website without the need for a password. This access will only be possible from agency work-stations for recognised domain-names.

The ABS has offered to provide some training during the trial period on using its website to locate and obtain material. If you are interested in arranging or attending a short session (1.5 hours), please contact either:
Anne Freer, tel. 9268 4607, or [email protected], or
Paul Molloy , tel. 9268 4855, or [email protected].

Queries regarding the trial may be directed to:
David Maynard, Treasury, tel. 9228 5471, or [email protected]
Ken Bullock, DITM, tel. 9236 7714, or [email protected].

Agencies are encouraged to utilise the trial period to best effect. You are requested to bring this circular to the attention of all staff in your agency.

C Gellatly
Director-General

OVER VIEW OF AUSSTATS

AusStats is a web based information service making the ABS' standard product range available on-line via the World Wide Web.

AusStats is an integral part of the ABS web site and is a subscription service.

AusStats will be updated daily, after 11.30 am, and will give you access to:

• All ABS publications from 1998 onwards in Adobe Acrobat format (pdf)
• Over 2,000 spreadsheets
• Multidimensional datasets in SuperTABLE format
• Census Basic Community Profiles to the Statistical Local Area (SLA) level in Excel spreadsheet format.
• Free summary information including Main Features, Release Advices & Australia Now and extensive linking between related information.

Topics covered include:

• Agricultural Statistics;
• Balance of Payments and International Investment;
• Building and Construction;
• Consumer Income and Expenditure;
• Crime and Justice;
• Demography;
• Education;
• Finance;
• Environment;
• Health;
• Indigenous Statistics;
• International Trade;
• Labour Market; Manufacturing Statistics;
• Mining;
• National Accounts;
• Population and Migration;
• Prices; Producer and Foreign Trade Indexes;
• Public Sector;
• Retail and Service Industries;
• Social Statistics;
• Stocks and Manufacturers' Sales;
• Tourism;
• Transport;
• Welfare and Social Services;
• Reserve Bank of Australia:
• and OECD data.