22. Torres Strait Islanders and the national survey model

This is the fourth event related to the NATSISS-type surveys that I have participated in. The three others have been a pre-NATSIS workshop in 1992 (Arthur 1992), a post-NATSIS workshop in 1996 (Arthur 1996) and a publication prepared by me and published jointly by the ABS in 1997 (ABS/CAEPR 1997). 1 That previous work followed my principal brief at the CAEPR which was to increase the commitment to provide policy-relevant data and information on Torres Strait Islanders (Islanders). In this role, much of what I said in the former work noted first that Islanders were not generally given much priority in standard ABS publications, and that there were certain conditions specific to Islanders that should be noted and recorded in any social surveys. In this paper I will review the earlier work to estimate the quality and coverage of data on Islanders in the 2002 NATSISS.