Govt reveals suggestions to measure wellbeing

As the financial pressure on millions of households from rising interest rates and high inflation intensifies, the government has released more than 160 submissions it has received on its proposed Measuring What Matters Statement.

The government has flagged plans to track around 20 indicators in order to gain an insight into national wellbeing and help guide investment to improve living standards, reduce intergenerational inequality and increase opportunity.

The submissions, from a wide range of individuals and organisations including community groups, peak bodies, businesses, academics, research institutes and governments, propose a range of policy areas to be including in wellbeing measures such as poverty and inequality, health, environment and climate change, housing, volunteering, First Nations people and digital inclusion.

While traditional indicators like gross domestic product are key measures of economic activity, the government said they provide only a partial insight into living standards and miss important aspects such as social or environmental outcomes or the distribution of the benefits of growth.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the breadth of community interest in developing a measure of national wellbeing was "really heartening".

"It's clear there's a real appetite to look at new ways that we can measure progress in our economy and measure the wellbeing of our communities and our society," Dr Chalmers said.

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"This isn't about abandoning GDP or other traditional economic indicators. It's about seeing if we can do a better job at considering the factors that are critical to everyone's wellbeing - whether that's the state of our environment, our health or our community."

Several countries and multilateral organisations already use wellbeing measures, including New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Among the areas tracked are income and wealth, social connections, environment, health, housing, safety, work-life balance and job quality.

New Zealand requires all new policy proposals to specify their contribution to wellbeing, the only country to do so.

Currently, Australia is at or above the OECD average on 21 of its 32 wellbeing indicators, but is going backwards in five areas including species extinction, household debt and labour underutilisation.