The Albanese Government plans to launch a program to track national wellbeing amid warnings of “serious turbulence ahead”. Source: Canberra Times.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers told an audience in Melbourne yesterday that about 50 indicators will be collected to assess how the country is faring and what needs to be done to build “healthier, more secure and cohesive communities and a more sustainable and prosperous economy”.
Dr Chalmers made his announcement while warning the nation faced “serious turbulence ahead”.
“We confront together our fair share of economic challenges,” he said, including high inflation and an economy slowing under pressure from rising interest rates and “substantial global uncertainty”.
Dr Chalmers said the wellbeing framework, called Measuring What Matters, was an important part of the Government’s strategy “to focus the economic debate on people [and] the future”.
Other elements of the strategy, including a revised Intergenerational Report and the forthcoming Employment White Paper, will be released in the next three months, he said.
The goal was “to align what we want for our society with what we want for our economy”.
Measuring What Matters will be organised around five themes that encompass the ways people live that go beyond just as economic actors.
“I think we’re mature enough as a country to recognise that other things matter too,” Dr Chalmers said.
“The health of our people. The state of our environment. How much time people spend at work, at home, with their kids, in traffic.
“And whether people feel connected to each other or not.
“This will help us track our journey towards a … society that gives every person ample opportunity to build lives of meaning and purpose,” Dr Chalmers said.
FULL STORY
Government wants to take nation’s pulse amid rising economic stress (By Adrian Rollins, Canberra Times)
