Brian Pink was the

Australian Statistician The Australian Statistician is the head of the Australian Bureau of Statistics. On 18 June 1906, the first ''Statistician of the Commonwealth of Australia'' was appointed to carry out the provisions of the ''Census and Statistics Act 1905''. Later ...

, the head of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), between 5 March 2007 and 12 January 2014. Prior to September 1999, Brian Pink was ABS's Statistical Support Group Manager, when he was appointed as the Government Statistician for New Zealand and Chief Executive of

Statistics New Zealand Statistics New Zealand ( mi, Tatauranga Aotearoa), branded as Stats NZ, is the public service department of New Zealand charged with the collection of statistics related to the economy, population and society of New Zealand. To this end, Stats ...

Biography

Pink's career in official statistics began in Australia with the then Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics in Sydney in 1966, followed by postings to various state offices of its successor, the Australian Bureau of Statistics. He was Government Statistician and Chief Executive of Statistics New Zealand from late October 2000 to March 2007. As well as his duties as ex officio member of the Australian Statistics Advisory Council, Pink is Vice Chairman of the

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate ...

Committee on Statistics, and Australia's Head of Delegation to the

United Nations Statistical Commission The United Nations Statistical Commission (StatCom) is a Functional Commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, established in 1947. The Statistical Commission oversees the work of the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). I ...

. He was President of the

International Association for Official Statistics The International Association for Official Statistics (IAOS) is an association founded in 1985. It is an international non-governmental organization (NGO), which was created and developed as a specialized section of the International Statistical I ...

from 2005 to 2007. Brian Pink professes strong views about the importance of the role of official statistics in society, beyond necessary government use.

Controversy

Brian Pink has been involved in a number of controversies relating to employees of the ABS.

Bulletin

In April 2008, the distribution of a staff bulletin by union employees led Brian Pink to issue a letter which advised employees that continued distribution of bulletins would be in breach of the

Australian Public Service The Australian Public Service (APS) is the federal civil service of the Commonwealth of Australia responsible for the public administration, public policy, and public services of the departments and executive and statutory agencies of the ...

Code of Conduct. This led to Federal Court action which was settled in mediation.

Sackings

In April 2009, the ABS was taken to the

Australian Industrial Relations Commission The Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC), known from 1956 to 1973 as the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission and from 1973 to 1988 as the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, was a tribunal with powers ...

by the

Community and Public Sector Union CPSU, the Community and Public Sector Union (more commonly known as the CPSU) is a national trade union in Australia. The union came into existence on 1 July 1994 with the amalgamation of the Public Sector, Professional, Scientific, Research, ...

for the manner in which staff were terminated, which resulted in a decision against the ABS.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pink, Brian Australian public servants Government Statisticians of New Zealand Living people Australian statisticians Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Australian public servants 21st-century New Zealand public servants ja:デニス・トレウィン