1998 Year Book Australia 1998 YEAR BOOK AUSTRALIA W. McLennan Australian Statistician NUMBER 80 AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS CANBERRA ABS Catalogue No. 1301.0 ISSN 0810-8633 © Commonwealth of Australia 1998 Alllegislationhereinisreproducedby permission butdoesnotpurporttobetheofficialor authorised version. ItissubjecttoCommonwealthof Australiacopyright. TheCopyrightAct1968 permits certain reproductionandpublication of Commonwealthlegislation.Inparticular, s.182A of theActenables a completecopytobemadeby oron behalfof a particular person.For reproductionor publication beyondthatpermitted bythe Act, permission should besoughtinwritingfromtheAustralian GovernmentPublishingService.Requests in the firstinstanceshouldbeaddressedtotheManager, CommonwealthInformationServices,AustralianGovernmentPublishing Service,GPOBox84,Canberra ACT2601. InallcasestheABS mustbeacknowledgedasthe sourcewhen reproducingor quotinganypartof an ABS publicationor otherproduct. Photograph: OtwayNationalPark(courtesy ofTourismVictoria). Table of contents Chapter Page Preface vii Introduction ix 1 Geography andclimate 1 SpecialArticle— ClimatevariabilityandEl Niño 21 2 Government 29 Commonwealth of Australia ConstitutionAct 48 3 Internationalrelations 103 4 Defence 119 5 Population 129 SpecialArticle— Changing linkswithEurope 169 6 Labour 179 7 Incomeandwelfare 223 8 Housing 257 9 Health 277 10 Education 315 11 Crimeandjustice 341 SpecialArticle— Violenceagainst women 367 12 Culture andrecreation 373 SpecialArticle— Participationinsportand physicalactivities 404 13 Industry overview 409 14 Environment 423 15 Agriculture 443 16 Forestryandfishing 479 17 Mining 501 18 Energy 521 19 Manufacturing 537 20 Construction 551 21 Serviceindustries 565 22 Tourism 581 23 Transport 597 24 Communications 617 25 Science andtechnology 627 26 Financialsystem 643 27 Governmentfinance 667 28 Prices 693 29 Nationalaccounts 709 SpecialArticle— Impactof the1995–96farm seasononAustralianproduction 731 30 Internationalaccountsandtrade 739 Year Book Australia 1998 vii Preface Year BookAustralia isthe principalreference workproduced byAustralian Bureau ofStatistics (ABS). Itprovides a comprehensiveand detailedstatisticaloverviewofvariousaspects of the economyand socialconditionsin Australia, togetherwiththeiradministrative andlegislative background. Inaddition, itcontainsdescriptive matterdealing withAustralia’s government, internationalrelations, defence, geographyand climate. This 1998edition reproducesthe Constitution oftheCommonwealth ofAustralia. This isin keepingwithpast practice, whereby the Constitution hasbeen includedperiodicallyinYear BookAustralia.Itwaslastincludedin the 1992 edition. ThefirstOfficial YearBookof the Commonwealthwaspublished in 1908, althoughindividual Australian States and colonies hadbeen producingyearbooksforseveral decadespreviously. Thestatistics contained in thiseditionarethemostrecentavailableatthetimeof its preparation.Moredetailedand, inmanycases, more recentstatistics are availablein the publications oftheABS and otherorganisations.Thesources ofinformationare shown throughoutand atthe end ofchaptersof theYearBook,whiletheABSCatalogueof PublicationsandProducts(1101.0)lists all currentpublications oftheABS. ABSpublicationsdraw extensivelyoninformationprovidedfreelybyindividuals,businesses, governmentsand otherorganisations. Theircontinued co-operationisvery muchappreciated. Particularthanksand appreciation are extendedtothoseorganisations whichhavekindly suppliedmaterialforinclusion inthis 1998 editionofYearBookAustralia. Australian Bureau ofStatistics Canberra W.McLennan February1998 AustralianStatistician Year Book Australia 1998 ix Introduction Y earBookAustraliaprovides a subjects,and limitationson thesize of theYear comprehensiveoverviewof theeconomic Book,itaims atbreadthrather thandepthof andsocial conditionsof contemporaryAustralia. information. Itisastatisiticallyorientedpublicationwith sufficientbackgroundinformationtoestablisha Forthose requiring information ingreater contextfor thestatistics and toassistin depth,theYear Bookalso servesas adirectory understandingand interpretingthem. tomoredetailed sources,withthe sourceshown for eachstatistical table,graphandmap.Where Manyof thestatisticsarederivedfromthe theABSisthesource,thetitleand catalogue AustralianBureau of Statistics (ABS),theofficial number of therelevantpublicationarequoted. statistical agency whichproducestheYear Book. Forother sources,thenameof theorganisation However, a greatdealof theinformation isalso isshown,and thepublication titlewhere contributedby other,predominantly appropriate. RelevantABS andother government, organisations.Theofficial natureof publicationsarealsolistedattheend of each thecontributors totheYearBookensuresahigh chapter. A usefulcomplementarypublicationis degree ofobjectivityandreliability inthe picture theABSCatalogueof PublicationsandProducts presentedof contemporaryAustralia. (1101.0)whichlists allcurrentpublicationsand products of theABS. TheYearBookalsopresents somehistoricaland internationalperspectives of Australia. TheYearBooks or StatisticalSummaries producedbytheABSfor eachStateor Territory Thiscurrent(80th) edition isthelatestinalong provide informationsimilar tothatcontainedin seriesof Year Books extendingbacktothefirst theYear BookAustralia, forthe Stateor edition in1908.This series provides avaluable Territoryconcerned. sourceof informationon thestate ofAustraliaat anyparticularpointinthisperiod. Inmanycases,theABScanalsoprovide information whichis notpublishedor whichis YearBookAustralia1998isalsoavailableon compiledfroma varietyofpublishedand CD-ROM. unpublished sources.Information ofthiskind maybeobtainedthroughtheInformation Finding information ConsultancyService.Charges aregenerally made for suchinformation.Inquiries maybemadeby Thecontents pages atthebeginningoftheYear contactingthe InquiriesSectioninthe nearest Bookand precedingeachchapterprovidea ABS office(seepage788). guidetothe broadsubjectscontainedineach chapter. The index assistsinlocatinginformation Theannualreportsof governmentdepartments on morespecificsubjects. Alistof specialarticles andagencies alsoprovideavaluablesourceof whichhave appeared in previous editions is moredetailed informationon subjects covered containedattheend of theYear Book. intheYearBook. Thetables andgraphs inachapterare Fora varietyofreasons,itisnotpossiblefor all numberedand thetextiscross-referenced,as statistics intheYear Booktorelatetothelatest necessary, tothetableor graphtowhichit or thesameyear.Readers wishingtoobtainor relates. clarifythe latestavailablestatisticsshould contacttherelevantsource. Further information Whilethe statistics and descriptive information Comments from readers containedintheYearBookprovidea TheABSendeavourstokeepthe balanceof the comprehensiveoverview of Australia,they contentsof theYearBookin linewiththe representonly arelatively smallpartof the ever-changingnature of thenation.For this statistics and otherinformationavailable.The reasoncomments on theadequacy and balance YearBookisaimedprimarily atprovidinga of thecontentsof theYearBookarewelcomed readyandconvenientsourceof reference, both andshouldbedirected totheEditor of theYear tothosefamiliar andunfamiliar witha particular BookatABSNationalOffice,Canberra. subject.Inother words, becauseof therangeof x Year Book Australia 1998 Symbols and abbreviations Thefollowingabbreviations areusedfor the titles of theAustralian StatesandTerritoriesand Thefollowingsymbols, where shownin columns Australia: of figuresof elsewhereintables,mean: NSW New SouthWales n.a. notavailable Vic. Victoria n.y.a notyetavailable Qld Queensland – nilor rounded tozero WA Western Australia .. notapplicable SA SouthAustralia n.p. notavailablefor separatepublication (but included in totals whereapplicable) Tas. Tasmania p preliminary— figures or seriessubjectto NT NorthernTerritory revision ACT AustralianCapital Territory r figures orseries revised since previous issue Aust. Australia n.e.i. notelsewhereincluded Yearlyperiodsshown,for example,as1996, refertotheyearended31December1996; n.e.c. notelsewhereclassified thoseshown,for example,as1996–97,referto theyearended30June1997. Other yearly n.e.s. notelsewherespecified periods arespecificallyindicated.Therangeof yearsshownin the tableheadings, for example, — breakin continuity ofseries 1901 to1996–97, indicates the period covered, (wheredrawn acrossa column butdoes notnecessarilyimply thateach betweentwo consecutive figures) intervening yearis included or thatthe yearly period has remainedthesamethroughoutthe * subjecttohighstandarderrorsand series. shouldbeused withcaution ValuesareshowninAustraliandollar($)or cents (c)unless anothercurrency isspecified. Wherefigures have been rounded, discrepanciesmayoccurbetweensumsof the componentitemsand totals.