House debates

Thursday, 4 August 2022

Adjournment

Wellbeing Budgets

4:36 pm

Photo of Peta MurphyPeta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I've spoken in this parliament a number of times about the concept of a wellbeing budget and why governments delivering wellbeing budgets is a progressive step not just in measuring GDP and economic growth but in measuring what matters. Some of this comes from a quote that I've used before, from Senator Robert F Kennedy way back in 1968:

… the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.

If we, as parliamentarians, are going to be part of trying to bring in policies that make life worthwhile, then we need to be able to judge, to measure, whether in fact that's what's occurring. It's why I am so pleased that Treasurer Chalmers has announced that his first budget, coming up in October, will include a new wellbeing statement. It will be aimed at measuring how Australians, how we all, are faring in our daily lives so we can better inform policy development and pursue growth, but pursue the right sort of growth, pursue economic growth that takes everyone with it, economic growth that reduces inequality, doesn't expand it.

As the Treasurer has said, Australians should judge policies against agreed markers of progress. That begins with measuring what matters—not instead of traditional economic indicators but in addition to them. GDP is important to measure, but measure what matters to people's daily lives—the impact of that GDP growth or otherwise—as well. So I'm very much looking forward to hearing the Treasurer deliver budget statement No. 4, which is going to be dedicated to a broad-ranging discussion of our options, drawing on best practice from around the world as the basis of our engagement and further development.

In Australia we used to be world leaders at measuring indicators of wellbeing, but we aren't anymore. We've been overtaken by New Zealand, by France, by many of the countries in the OECD. The UN has the Sustainable Development Goals. It is an important and worthy activity to engage in to say: 'We are going to look at what matters: mental health; child poverty; inequalities faced by our First Nations people; how the reforms and innovations of a digital age can be spread more evenly across regions and cities—people from advantaged backgrounds, people from disadvantaged backgrounds; how we are going in transitioning to a low-carbon economy; how our environment is faring.' We talk about the importance of all these things in a policy sense, but we don't do enough at the moment to hold ourselves to targets and measure our process in a transparent way and a way that this parliament can be involved in.

I want to congratulate the Treasurer for moving us in that direction. He knows this, but I remind him of how interested I am in being part of that development. I was going to talk about local sporting champions, but I've used up almost all of my time. Thank you, Speaker, and see you next time parliament sits.