PM Transcripts

FOR MEDIA 10 April 1986
Mr Ian Castles, formerly Secretary Department of Finance, has
been appointed Australian Statistician.
As Australia's major statistical authority, the Australian Bureau
of Statistics plays a vital role in providing the information
needed to provide a firm basis for decision-making and for
community understanding of economic and social issues. The
Government is committed to its continuing development as an
objective statistical organisation maintaining the highest
professional standards, thereby ensuring the availability of
adequate information to support decision-making in the public and
private sectors and to promote a generally well-informed society.
It is the Government's intention that the Australian Bureau of
Statistics should establish closer links with the many centres of
economic and social research within Government and in the
universities which make extensive use of the Bureau's product in
carrying out their functions.
Mr Castles has had an extensive involvement in the formulation of
advice to government on economic and social policies. Before his
appointment as Secretary, Department of Finance in 1979 he worked
as Chairman of the Income Security Review and as a Deputy
Secretary and then Under Secretary in the Department of Prime
Minister and Cabinet.
Dr M4 S Keating has been appointed as Secretary to the Department
of Finance. Dr Keating was formerly Secretary to the Department
of Employment and Industrial Relations. Since 11 February 1986
Dr Keating has been the Secretary designate to the Department of
Finance. These appointments take effect today.