Today I issued a media release expressing concern that the Australian Bureau of Statistics will be releasing a lot fewer statistics as a result of cuts in the federal budget.
ANDREW LEIGH MP
SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER
SHADOW MINISTER FOR COMPETITION
MEMBER FOR FRASER
MEDIA RELEASE
Cuts to ABS another salvo in the Abbott Government’s war on facts
The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ ability to survey and measure the impact of policies is being deliberately undermined by the Abbott Government.
The ABS today confirmed further reductions to its statistical program – hitting social and environmental surveys - as a result of a $50m cut to its budget over three years.
Anticipating the damaging effects of the Government’s regressive social and environmental policies on generations to come, the work of the ABS is even more vital to measure change.
And yet, the work of this highly specialist agency is being undermined. The cuts will mean discontinuing the following programs:
- Measures of Australia's Progress
- Australian Social Trends
- Environment collections from Australian households
- Waste Account
- ABS funded component of Culture, Sport and Recreation statistics
- Survey of Tourist Accommodation
This is a Government that is not interested in understanding the impact of its policies, evidenced by its scrapping of the family impact statement in the budget papers.
Conservative leader, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, once said that if his policies worked ‘we could live in peace and tranquillity, and no one would know anything’.
This government’s war on facts suggest that the spirit of Joh lives on.
THURSDAY, 5 JUNE 2014
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