Talk:Wikinews interviews Australian Statistician Brian Pink

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Details[edit]

The interview is scheduled to take place at 2.00pm, March 1214. I'll try to get my hands on a digital camera so I can add a photo to the article (and to his article on Wikipedia while I'm at it).

Topics[edit]

These are some of the things I'm planning to talk to him about (where no question is explicitly stated, I'm still at the "will ask him something about that" stage). Please feel free to add some more.

  • About the ABS and the Australian Statistician's responsibilities.
  • Differences between Stats NZ and ABS.
  • In 2005, the ABS mission statement changed from calling the Bureau a "statistical provider" to a "statistical leader". What does "statistical leadership" entail, and what initiatives are the Bureau implementing to achieve it?
  • Last year, Brian oversaw the release of data from the 2006 Census. I will ask about that, and about plans for 2011.
  • In November the Federal Election saw Labor take Government for the first time in 11 years. Has this affected the ABS, and how does he see it affecting it?
  • In February, the ABS launched the 2008 Year Book, and announced the availability of all previous Year Books for free on the Internet.
  • Also in February, Kevin Rudd apologised on behalf of the Australian government to the Stolen Generation. The Human Rights Commission report "Bringing Them Home"[1] quoted from the 1994 ABS National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Survey. Will ask about the Bureau's involvement in A&TSI studies.
  • Do people trust ABS numbers?

Conflict of interest[edit]

I hereby admit that, as an employee of the Bureau of Statistics, I have a clear conflict of interest in this story. I will endeavour to keep the article as NPOV as possible, and welcome judicious editing by others to ensure this. Chris Mann (Say hi!|Stalk me!) 11:13, 19 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Interview done[edit]

Just came back from the interview. The recording is low-fi, but legible, and I'll try to clean it up tonight or tomorrow and start uploading/transcribing. I decided to drop the question on trust of ABS statistics and instead asked about the "brain drain". Got about 25 minutes of interview so it may take a little while to get fixed up, and I didn't get my hands on a camera so I may want to hold off on publishing until I can. It felt like a fairly good interview, though. Chris Mann (Say hi!|Stalk me!) 03:42, 14 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Just inserted the first part. More to come, but if anyone wants to take a look at what I've got up it would be great. Chris Mann (Say hi!|Stalk me!) 13:05, 15 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Second part up. This is about half the interview, and I've transcribed another 1/4 or so. Chris Mann (Say hi!|Stalk me!) 12:03, 17 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Last part up. You can listen to the interview at Image:Brian Pink interview.ogg (or click above), and tell me if I've screwed something up. I'm now going to fill in some related stories (if I can find them), relevant external links, and wikilinks. Chris Mann (Say hi!|Stalk me!) 12:46, 17 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]