What Would Our Politicians Do If They Actually Cared About Our Well-being?

How happy are you as an Australian and do you think our politicians actually care?  What would our political decision-making process look like if we gave equal weight to both financial and “wellbeing” performance indicators. Our politicians seem to be overtly focused on lambasting each other’s economic record and their inability to balance the books whist forgetting completely about their electorate’s wellbeing. Both are engaged in “significant pork” barrelling in their election spending promises with claim and counter claim about how they will be funded. However, across the ditch in New Zealand Jacinda Ahearn’s government is set to hand down their very first “wellbeing budget”. A “wellbeing budget” measures policies not just in economic terms but also against social, cultural and environmental indicators. Whilst this approach is not new conceptually, it has struggled to reach mainstream acceptance as Australia has not had a leader to champion its adoption as long-term nation building gives way to political expediency.