Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Hume for the question and the opportunity to talk about the importance of the document that was released by the Treasurer, Measuring what matters: Australia's first wellbeing framework, which is designed to help better track outcomes across the economy and society in a broader way than the budget allows. It uses 50 indicators to measure how we're faring as we pursue a more healthy, secure, sustainable, cohesive and prosperous Australia. It isn't about abandoning some of those measures like GDP or other traditional economic indicators. It's about seeing if we can do a better job at considering the things that are critical to everyone's wellbeing, whether that's the state of our health, our community or our environment.

In terms of the data that was used, Treasury has identified the best available indicators for the framework using data from ABS, Commonwealth departments and other sources. This process hasn't been done before; this is the first iteration of a framework. I note there has been broad community and stakeholder support for broadening out the way we measure the wellbeing of our community. It has revealed some data gaps, which we will work to address as we refine and develop the framework going forward.