Australians live longer, are happier in their jobs and trust each other more than they did two decades ago.
But more people are battling chronic disease, struggling to make ends meet and having bad experiences online.
There’s also less trust in government and more concern for the nation’s safety than there was 20 years ago.
These are some of the findings of the first national wellbeing framework which will continue to track how healthy, secure, sustainable, cohesive and prosperous Australia is.
It’s part of a push to measure economic success at a societal level as well as via the more traditional means of gross domestic product (GDP), employment, inflation and wages.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the framework was part of a deliberate effort to put people, progress, fairness and opportunity at the core of Australia’s economy.
Chalmers said the government needed to be better at measuring progress over time, following criticism some of the data used in the framework was out of date.
“There are a number of areas where there are limitations in the data and we need to improve that,” Chalmers told reporters in Brisbane.
“One of the motivations for releasing this first national wellbeing framework is to recognise where we need to do a much better job measuring what matters in our economy and in our society.”
But shadow treasurer Angus Taylor said Chalmers needed a reality check and his department’s tracker was “half baked”.
“This report focuses on data from prior to 2020, prior to the pandemic ... it is completely out of date,” Taylor told reporters in Perth.
“At a time when we’ve seen 11 interest rate increases, a $25,000 (US$16,900) increase in the costs of a typical Australian family, and you’re ignoring that data from your report.
“This is not a report on wellbeing.”
The framework will be refined as Treasury gathers data and community feedback.
In the past two decades, Australia has improved in life expectancy, feelings of safety, representation in parliament and childhood development.
A woman born today can expect to live 85.4 years, compared with 81.3 years for a man.
Australians are also more accepting of diversity and have more trust in others and in public services.
Household incomes have improved, as has job satisfaction.
But there are also higher numbers of Australians living with chronic conditions and many find it more difficult to access health care than in previous decades.
In 2020/21, 46.6 percent of Australians of all ages had one or more chronic conditions and almost one in five had two or more.
There has been little progress on mental health and real wages.
Measures relating to homelessness and trust in national government have deteriorated.
Australians are also finding it more difficult to make ends meet.
Since 2006, the proportion of households experiencing financial stress has increased and the proportion of people who would not be able to raise $2,000 (US$1,350) within a week when needed has risen from 14.5 percent to 18.7 percent in 2020.
Housing is taking up more of people’s pay and nearly half of low-income earners who rent spent more than 30 percent of their weekly income on housing costs.
Australian Council of Trade Unions assistant secretary Joseph Mitchell said the framework’s launch was a first step towards creating policy focused on people, not just numbers.
“There is more to life than GDP,” Mitchell said.
“Working people value their security in work, wages which provide a decent standard of living and satisfaction in their work.”
