Progress in Society
Is life in Australia getting better? Of course that depends on who you ask, but in Australia most indicators show that while our gross domestic product (GDP) rises, our sense of satisfaction in our lives declines.
By most measures Australia is a very fortunate country. After all, we are being told we have avoided the worst of the global financial crisis, we have beautiful beaches, stable government, and a high standard of living.
Australia has investigated broader measures of the quality of life in the past. In 1988, 25 academics contributed to a study “Measuring progress: is life getting better?” The Australian Bureau of Statistics led research on 14 dimensions of progressing regarding individuals, the economy, the environment and society, and the Productivity Commission has supported ‘count the smiles’ seminars on community happiness as an indicator of policy success. The Australia Centre for Quality of Life at Deakin University, the BankWest Quality of Life Index and the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index all periodically monitor life satisfaction amongst the Australian population, but little serious attention has been paid to the implications of such research for the domestic policy issues of today.
This month, Open Forum is taking inspiration from the GAP task force on Progress in Society, established following the 2010 National Economic Review Summit, to explore how the ‘economics of happiness’ can be used to inform national policy.
Is it now appropriate to formulate a measure of Australian happiness? Are happiness indicators legitimate tools for policy making? How should policy and measurement interact? If you would like to share your thoughts on these issues, please upload your blog or email lhughes@openforum.com.au.
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RELATED CONTENT:
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New measures of progress mean little without action – Charles Berger
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Measuring our quality of life – why is the world looking beyond GDP? – by Stephen Bartos
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Measuring Australia’s economic and social progress – by Stephen Bartos
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The idea of progress in history – how far have we come? – by Mike Salvaris
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What do ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day mean to our sense of wellbeing as a nation? – by David McLachlan
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Focus on progress of society, not the wellbeing of individuals – by Fergus Neilson
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Raising a happy generation – by Catherine Fritz-Kalish
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Rural health services essential to a healthy country – by Susan McAlpin
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Is life in Australia getting better? How will we know? – by Site News
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Smoke-free guide clears the air for strata dwellers – by Anne Jones
Open Forum is an interactive policy discussion website hosted and moderated by Global Access Partners (GAP).
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Merv09
December 17, 2011 at 2:24 am
The Sleaze train and Gravy Train are popular in Canberra
It seems that the sleaze train and the gravy train have a regular well attended platform at the Canberra Parliament house. Admittedly it has been stopping there regularly over the last forty years and beyond. It is a pity for the people with integrity. We do not have a political party that has a constitution which all members have to sign to become a member. If they had a constitution that portrayed a competent, intelligent plan with intent of integrity, that party would be worth accepting in Parliament. Unfortunately no party has such plans, and the only demand for new members is to sign a form “I promise to agree with the decisions of the members of the majority of the party”.
No intelligent person who has pride in his integrity, would join with such a promise, and what we get is people with little intelligence and no integrity, and that shows up with the decisions which have been made in Parliament over the last forty years, destroying our economy, destroying our industries and destroying the living conditions of our wage earners and small business..
and_13753
June 28, 2012 at 11:16 am
Well-Being
In today’s modern society people talk and talk about well-being, but don’t really do enough about it. Health and well-being go hand in hand. It’s about time that organisations and employees take ownership, by listening to what is happening around them before it’s too late. Human capital within the workforce! what can I say, except if we don’t maintain our own destiny and environment; who will?
Sandy.