Kangan and statistics

The importance of good national statistics to public policy and planning is clearly seen in the Kangan report (indexed at TD/LMR 85.637). The paper asserts that 20 years later, a new statistical regime is coming into being that can be regarded as a fitting response to the work of the Kangan Committee. It first outlines the state of statistics on Australian vocational education that the Kangan Committee found. It then outlines the work they commissioned from their secretariat to fill the gap. A description is then given of the statistical developments that occurred in the decade after the...  [+] Show more

The importance of good national statistics to public policy and planning is clearly seen in the Kangan report (indexed at TD/LMR 85.637). The paper asserts that 20 years later, a new statistical regime is coming into being that can be regarded as a fitting response to the work of the Kangan Committee. It first outlines the state of statistics on Australian vocational education that the Kangan Committee found. It then outlines the work they commissioned from their secretariat to fill the gap. A description is then given of the statistical developments that occurred in the decade after the publication of the report. The final section is an account of the major work on statistical reform that began in the late 1980s and is still continuing.

The volume from which this chapter is taken is indexed at TD/TNC 39.16.