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Data Element Detail

Person-indigenous status (registration, HBCIS)
Identifying and Definitional Attributes
QH 041940 v2
Data Element
Data Element
Draft
26-Mar-2015		Current
30-Jun-2015		Superseded
14-Aug-2016
Standard
01-Sep-2015
30-Jun-2016
Whether a person identifies as being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin.
Indigenous status (HBCIS)
Representational Attributes
Numeric
Code
N(2)
2
2
Permissible Values

Permissible_values

CodeDescription
11Aboriginal not Torres Strait Islander
12Torres Strait Islander not Aboriginal
13Both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
14Not Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander
Supplementary Values

Supplemenary_values

CodeDescription
29Not Stated/Unknown - no follow up required
39Not Stated/Unknown - follow up required
Collection and Usage Attributes
Code 29 Not stated/unknown - no follow-up required
Use this code when the client has declined to respond.

Code 39 Not stated/unknown - follow-up required
Includes situations where it was impossible for the question to be asked during the contact episode and other situations where the response was left blank or incomplete.

Although provision is made for recording unknown Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin every effort should be made to determine and record a person's Indigenous status.
The standard question for Indigenous Status is as follows:

'Are you (is the person) (is (name)) of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin?'

Standard response options should be provided to the person to answer the questions (either verbally or on a written form):
- No
- Yes, Aboriginal
- Yes, Torres Strait Islander
- Yes, both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

(For persons of both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin, mark both Yes boxes.) This question is recommended for self-enumerated or interview-based collections.

It is strongly recommended that this question be asked directly wherever possible. This question must always be asked regardless of data collectors' perceptions based on appearance or other factors. The Indigenous status question allows for more than one response. The procedure for coding multiple responses is as follows:
- If the respondent marks No and either Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, then the response should be coded to either Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander as indicated (i.e. disregard the No response).
- If the respondent marks both the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander boxes, then their response should be coded to Both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin.
- If the respondent marks all three boxes (No, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander), then the response should be coded to Both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin (i.e. disregard the No response)

For Queensland Hospital Admitted Patient Data Collection (QHAPDC) and national reporting of the Person-indigenous status data element the following mapping occurs:
Code 11 Aboriginal not Torres Strait Islander is mapped to code 1 Aboriginal but not Torres Strait Islander origin
Code 12 Torres Strait Islander not Aboriginal is mapped to code 2 Torres Strait Islander but not Aboriginal origin
Code 13 Both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin is mapped to code 3 Both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin
Code 14 Not Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander is mapped to code 4 Neither Aboriginal nor Torres Strait Islander origin
Code 29 Not stated/unknown - no follow-up required is mapped to code 9 Not stated/unknown
Code 39 Not stated/Unknown - follow-up required is mapped to code 9 Not stated/unknown

This data element is mappable to the Person-indigenous status (registration) data element as follows:
Code 11 Aboriginal not Torres Strait Islander is mapped to code 1 Aboriginal but not Torres Strait Islander origin
Code 12 Torres Strait Islander not Aboriginal is mapped to code 2 Torres Strait Islander but not Aboriginal origin
Code 13 Both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin is mapped to code 3 Both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin
Code 14 Not Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander is mapped to code 4 Neither Aboriginal nor Torres Strait Islander origin
Code 29 Not stated/unknown - no follow-up required is mapped to code 9 Not stated/unknown - no follow-up required
Code 39 Not stated/Unknown - follow-up required is mapped to code 8 Not stated/unknown - follow-up required
Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples occupy a unique place in Australian society and culture. In the current climate of reconciliation, accurate and consistent statistics about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are needed in order to plan, promote and deliver essential services, to monitor changes in wellbeing and to account for government expenditure in this area.
The purpose of this data element is to provide information about people who identify as being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin. The following definition, commonly known as 'The Commonwealth definition', was given in a High Court judgement in the case of Commonwealth v Tasmania (1983) 46 ALR 625. 'An Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander is a person of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent who identifies as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and is accepted as such by the community in which he or she lives'.
There are three components to the Commonwealth definition:
- descent
- self-identification
- community acceptance.
In practice, it is not feasible to collect information on the community acceptance part of this definition in general purpose statistical and administrative collections and therefore standard questions on Indigenous status relate to descent and self-identification only.
Relational Attributes
Related Metadata References

Related Metadata References_IR

  • 1 - 3
ViewRelationshipMetadata Item TypeMetadata Item SubtypeNameIdentifier & VersionApproval Status
SupersedesData ElementData ElementPerson-indigenous status (registration, HBCIS)QH 041940 Version 1Superseded
Has been superseded byData ElementData ElementPerson-indigenous status (registration, HBCIS)QH 041940 Version 3Superseded
Is mappable toData ElementData ElementPerson-indigenous statusQH 040290 Version 4Superseded
Implementation in Metadata Sets

Implemented

No Metadata Items
Source and Reference Attributes
Aboriginal/Torres strait islander; Aboriginality; Indigenous status; Torres Strait Islander;