We are pleased to announce the appointment of Mr David Kalisch as the full-time Australian Statistician of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) for a period of five years.
The ABS is Australia's national statistical agency providing key statistics on a wide range of economic, environmental and social issues, to assist and encourage informed decision making, research and discussion within governments and the community.
Mr Kalisch has been the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare since 2010. He was previously a Commissioner at the Productivity Commission, Deputy Secretary in the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing, and held senior executive roles in the Department of Family and Community Services, Social Security and Prime Minister and Cabinet.
Mr Kalisch has also had two appointments to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Public Policy Fellow at the Australian National University.
The skills, experience and strong leadership Mr Kalisch will bring to the position will maintain the reputation of the ABS, and build the ABS of the future to be responsive to community, business and government needs for data and statistics.
A statement will be released in early 2015 outlining the Government’s expectations about the role and responsibilities of the ABS, its relationship with the Government, issues of transparency and accountability and operational matters.
Mr Kalisch will commence with the ABS on Monday, 15 December 2014.
We wish to extend our thanks to Mr Jonathan Palmer for his leadership and contribution as the acting Australian Statistician over the past 10 months.