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Lack of co-ordination
The fact that much of this information is not
available outside the department which controls it is
precisely the reason why the central statistical authority
has to collect it again through its own independent
surveys. Likewise, some of the information in the
possession of the Bureau of Statistics cannot be passed on
to other departments > because it may not divulge the
contents of certain questionnaires it circulates to its
respondents. But personal information can be "sanitised"
for use as anonymous statistical material and some degree
of duplication surely can be avoided between departments.
The point was made in a private survey conducted by
Senator Messncr in South Australia, on the cost,
frequency and usefulness of statistics businessmen are
pompelled by law to provide, that only a minute
percentage of the respondents acknowledged that they
ever relied on statistics in making decisions. The validity
of this finding could perhaps be questioned on the ground
that the proportion of all the respondents who took the
trouble of answering the questions put to them was only
24 per cent, and that it conflicts with the experience of the
bureau which says there is a very big demand for the
results of some of its business surveys. The Messncr
survey, in addition, does not say if this small percentage of
respondents who are users of statistics represents big or
small businesses. The bigger firms normally have their
own markd-rescarch departments and arc known to rely
on statistical data much more than small businesses. It
must be added that the information sought from certain
groups is not necessarily intended for the use of these
same groups but of decision makers in .other fields.
Apart from the lack-of sufficient co-ordination
between information-gathering agencies there could be
also a lack of adequate communication between the
gatherers and the users of statistics, another point made
: by the 1974 report. The- Bureau of Statistics does not have
an automatic feedback system that constantly monitors
the use made of the statistics it provides and the continued
need for given sets of figures. But it docs investigate these
matters from time to time and even mounts special
surveys of users to verify the continued relevance of its
activities. It also simplifies the returns it seeks where this
is possible and it rotates the list of respondents in surveys
|>ased on small samples.
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