Response: ABS’s comments on ‘Estimating Indigenous life expectancy: pitfalls with consequences’

Abstract

This is an Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) response to Madden et al.’s paper entitled ‘Estimating Indigenous life expectancy: pitfalls with consequences’, which is published in this issue of the Journal of Population Research. This paper is a critique of the method used by the ABS for compiling life tables for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. The paper claims that ‘the ABS methods have understated Indigenous deaths and so overstated life expectancy’. The purpose of this rejoinder is to ensure that readers are aware of the ABS response to the points raised in the paper. The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) committed themselves collectively to overcoming the disadvantage experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and set a number of high-level targets to achieve this commitment. One of the targets is to close the life expectancy gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous Australians (Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision 2009). The Ministerial Council for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs agreed to support jurisdictional improvement in the quality of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander demographic data, with priority given to improve the compilation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander life tables and life expectancy estimates. Therefore, a critical examination of the method of compiling life expectancy estimates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians is welcome. The main criticisms of the Madden et al. paper are related to: