Introduction by Croakey: Will the Federal Budget kick some goals for a wellbeing economy?
Or is Australia in danger of losing the game, when it comes to building an economy that supports the health and wellbeing of people and planet?
These and other questions are addressed in the timely article below by political economist Dr Katherine Trebeck, Economic Change Lead at The Next Economy, writer-at-large at the University of Edinburgh, consultant to the Club of Rome, and 2024 Thinker-In-Residence at the Australian Health Promotion Association.
Katherine Trebeck writes:
Since first living in Scotland in 1999, I’ve long cheered on the country’s rugby team. Over the decades you get used to seeing the team give the opposition a decent test during the first half. Get ahead even. Only to throw it away in the second half, to which my fellow fans mutter about the team being a bunch of ‘chokers’.
Now I am back living in Australia and observing the discussion about climate action and economic change, I worry that this term risks being all-too apt for the current state of play.
There are plenty of examples in Australia of governments, and most certainly enterprises, taking some steps in the direction of building an economy that much better serves people and planet: what more and more people are referring to as a ‘wellbeing economy’.
One of the steps that people readily point to is the Treasury’s 2023 Measuring What Matters (MWM) statement. It is important to be clear what it is and what it isn’t. The MWM statement is a multidimensional measurement framework that has potential, yes, only potential thus far, to shape policy and budget decisions.
This framework does not yet equate to a wellbeing budget and it’s a far cry from a wellbeing economy, which would require much more systemic shifts across a range of economic areas than just measures.
However, keep an eye on it: the MWM framework is a most welcome first step in terms of setting up the governance systems that are necessary to build a wellbeing economy.
As all eyes will turn to May’s 2024 federal budget on 14 May, let’s hope to see indications that MWM will be embedded in future policy making.
Global movement
At a time when cost of living pressure is all too real for many Australians, and when young people’s mental health is described as being at ‘crisis point’, Australia has a chance to join other governmental and institutional players around the world in building an economy that works for people and planet.
Moves like the MWM statement have potential to be the basis of a strong second half game. In the last few weeks, the Prime Minister has declared that ‘The so-called ‘Washington consensus’ has fractured’ (the Washington Consensus being the smaller state, free market policy agenda rolled out by institutions such as the IMF and World Bank). The Treasurer has previously written that “the type of economy and the type of growth matters – and its distribution matters”.
When it comes to health, the National Health and Climate Strategy recognises the interconnections between health and our environment: committing to “support healthy, climate-resilient and sustainable communities through whole-of-government action which recognises the relationship between health and climate outcomes”.
Does this signal the language is shifting?
If so, Australia is far from alone in questioning who the economy is for and how it might be redesigned to better work for people and planet.
Here are just a few examples:
- The European Parliament has called for a wellbeing economy, including its European Economic and Social Research Committee recognising that ‘a paradigm shift is needed towards a wellbeing economy’.
- Scotland’s ten-year economic strategy talks of the government’s vision for a wellbeing economy.
- Wales has a Future Generations Commissioner, premised on its Wellbeing of Future Generations legislation.
- The World Health Organization has appointed champions for a wellbeing economy.
- Over a decade ago, the OECD commissioned Nobel Laureates and leading thinkers to examine how to deal with contemporary challenges. They concluded that there is a “need to rethink the role of the economy in improving the well-being of people and the planet”.
- Earlier this year the World Economic Forum’s Future of Growth Report stated that “The question is…how [economic] growth can be better aligned with other important priorities.”
- Next month Iceland will host a major wellbeing economy governments forum.
Communities and enterprises are doing more than shifting their language: they are rolling up their sleeves and showing what a wellbeing economy entails, whether that is Totally Renewable Yackandandah’s Community Battery in Victoria, the community-owned servo and farm supply store in the same town, or the co-housing eco-village of Christie Walk in Adelaide.
Towns such as Gladstone in Queensland are seeing council, community, and industry in conversation to map ‘a positive economic transition’ in response to the shifts in energy generation and use.
These examples are wonderful sparks – they could constitute a first half ripe with potential. Whether they amount to more than fluky moves and actually represent consistent form will come down to how well Australia escapes 20th century shibboleths, assumptions, and their resulting prescriptions for how the economy is purposed, designed and delivered.
Outdated ways of thinking – such as assuming the market always knows best, ignoring power imbalances in firms when claiming that productivity gains will boost everyone’s living standards, and turning a blind-eye to the limits of what we can throw at the environment – are wheeled out all-too predictably whenever political leaders show signs of breaking free of such thinking. Presumably those jeering such efforts hope that the conversation will be put back in its box and their preferred match of business as usual will carry on.
But business as usual has done grave damage to people and planet and created conditions which mean disruption is coming, like it or not.
The question is whether Australia chokes and reverts to economic approaches that have had their time and are not match-fit for the realities – opportunities – of today’s world.
It is up to all of us who care about the health of people and our planet to don the colours of a wellbeing economy and barrack our hearts out for its political champions. If that sounds like something for you, join the launch of the WEAll Australia hub in late June.
Author details
Dr Katherine Trebeck is a political economist, Economic Change Lead at The Next Economy, writer-at-large at the University of Edinburgh, consultant to the Club of Rome and 2024 Thinker-In-Residence at the Australian Health Promotion Association.
She co-founded the Wellbeing Economy Alliance and WEAll Scotland, instigated the group of Wellbeing Economy Governments (WEGo), and has published numerous books and articles, most recently as co-author of The wellbeing economy in brief: Understanding the growing agenda and its complications with the Centre for Policy Development.
Previously at Croakey
- Nieves Murray, 2022. How a Wellbeing Budget could help save lives at a critical time.
- Jennifer Doggett and Alison Barrett, 2022. To make a proper Wellbeing Budget, what are the essential ingredients?
- Leanne Wells, 2022. Wellbeing budgets are not the soft underbelly of public policy.
- Melissa Le Mesurier, 2022. With just 56 days left on wellbeing budget consultation, putting some questions and issues on the radar.
- Robert Costanza et al, 2023. Health is key to our first national wellbeing framework.
- Jennifer Doggett, 2023. On the wellbeing framework, and ways forward.
- Melissa Sweet, 2023. Calling all “frustrated champions” – Australia’s future needs you, now.
- Chelsea Hunnisett, 2024. As we approach the Federal Budget, whatever happened to “Measuring What Matters”?
- Lesley Russell, 2024. The Health Wrap: a big diabetes investigation, questions for the Treasurer, primary care reforms, and the benefits of crochet.
