BDB Assistant Help & Information

The Breaking Down Barriers (BDB) project in partnership with the Paul Ramsay Foundation, is dedicated to breaking the cycles of poverty and disadvantage in Australia. This is a crucial national challenge: despite overall improvements, Australia's poverty rate remains relatively high (around 12–14 percent) compared to many OECD countries, and this issue is complex, persistent, and highly variable across communities. Addressing this requires not just more data, but a better, faster way to turn that data into actionable knowledge.

Breaking Down Barriers Assistant

The Melbourne Institute has developed the Breaking Down Barriers Assistant as a solution to this challenge. This is a powerful, AI-driven tool designed to democratize data insights by making complex analysis accessible to everyone—from policymakers to non-profit leaders—without the need for deep data technical expertise.
The Assistant is part of the broader BDB initiative, which curates extensive, high-value datasets on socio-economic disadvantage. The Assistant acts as your personal data analyst, drawing instantly from this rich evidence base to deliver clear, synthesized answers and insights.

Purpose: Insights, Integrated Data, and Clarity

The core purpose of the Breaking Down Barriers Assistant is to transform data into decisions by bypassing technical hurdles and delivering research-ready assets directly to stakeholders.
The Assistant enables you to quickly understand the nuances of disadvantage in three key ways:

• Rapid Insights: Get clear, evidence-based answers to complex questions, such as how poverty rates vary by household type or the relationship between youth unemployment and education.
• Variable Clarity: Easily ask questions about the underlying data and receive specific information on the closest variables available in the data ecosystem that address your query.
• Integrated Datasets: For deeper exploration, the Assistant can help generate integrated datasets—research-ready data that combines multiple core datasets tailored specifically to your policy or research question.

This ensures you can access the full power of the data, whether you need a quick statistic or a complete, custom dataset, all without needing to write code or read extensive documentation.

Available Datasets

The Breaking Down Barriers Assistant is currently trained on a limited scope of the data within the BDB Shared Data Environment (BDB-SDE) ecosystem. This initial evidence base includes:

• Labour market data (DS007): NERO, IVI, and DSS Jobseeker statistics for regional employment and occupational demand.
• Youth disadvantage and transition measures (DS012): Census and PLIDA data on youth poverty and NEET rates.
• Employment service provider data (DS014): TTW data tracking employment outcomes.

As the Assistant is undergoing continuous improvement and development, its scope will be extended in the future to incorporate a much broader range of the high-value datasets available through the Breaking Down Barriers project.

Getting Started

The BDB Assistant is designed to help you explore, analyze, and understand social and economic data from the Breaking Down Barriers project. You can interact with the assistant through the chat interface, select tools for specific tasks, and view results in a clear, visual format. Follow the steps below to make the most of each feature.

1. Variable Information Tool

Use this tool to learn about the variables in the BDB dataset. Simply select the tool and ask questions about any variable. The assistant will provide definitions, measurement methods, and historical context in plain language.

• Click on Variable Information in the sidebar or tool menu.
• Type your question about a variable (e.g., "How do you measure unemployment?").
• Review the detailed answer provided by the assistant.

2. Visual Analytics Tool

This tool lets you create interactive charts, graphs, and maps to visualize data. Select variables, choose chart types, and apply filters to explore trends and patterns.

• Click on Visual Analytics in the sidebar or tool menu.
• Type your question about your interest or variables and wait until the assistant gives you a list of relevant variables.
• Select the variables you want to visualize.
• Choose a chart type (bar, line, or map).
• Apply filters if needed and view the chart.
• Download data or charts for your own use.

3. Analyst Tool

The Analyst tool provides advanced analysis and insights. Ask open-ended questions about the data, request summaries, or explore correlations and trends. The assistant uses AI to deliver clear, actionable answers.

• Click on Analyst in the sidebar or tool menu.
• Type your analytical question (e.g., "Show me the most recent map of local unemployment rates across Australia.")
• Review the analysis, summary, or visualization provided.

Tips for Best Results

• The default geographical level is SA4 level.
• Be specific with your questions for more accurate answers.
• Try asking the same question with more specific details if you are not satisfied with the response.
• Use the download options to save data and charts.
• If you encounter issues, check the Known Issues section or contact support.

Explore detailed information about social and economic variables used in the BDB Project. Provides descriptions, measurement methods, and historical context for each variable.

Questions to Ask

• What is the goal of the BDB project?
• Give me the details about BDB project.
• Which variable measures unemployment?
• List all the available variables.
• How is youth disadvantage defined in the dataset?
• What is measured by the variable 'neet'?
• Which variables are available for SA2 regions?
• Which variables are measured over time?

Create interactive visualizations to explore insights into data. Generate charts, graphs, and maps to understand patterns and trends.

Topics to Explore

• Unemployment
• Neet and poverty
• Vacancies by job title

Access advanced analytical capabilities to perform in-depth analysis of social and economic data. Identify patterns, correlations, and insights.

Questions to Ask

• Show me which jobs had the 10 highest numbers of vacancies in year 2022.
• Show me the latest map of NEET rates recorded across the neighbourhoods of Melbourne.
• Summarize the recent unemployment trends around Sydney.
• I would like to see a sequence of maps that shows me the dynamics of regional unemployment rate (at SA4 level) over the last nine years.

• Some zero values in charts may represent missing or NA data.
• Occasional delays in data loading for large queries.
• AI answers are limited to the BDB datasets and may not cover external data.
• There are limited chart options in Visual Analytics tool.
• The Analyst tool may not be able to do advanced data analysis and synthesis.
• Youth Disadvantage data is available for 2021 only.
• The Visual Analytics cannot generate rates (%) for visualization.
• Feedback and bug reporting via email are encouraged to improve the assistant.

If you have any feedback, suggestions, or wish to report issues, please contact us:

Ujjwal.KC@unimelb.edu.au