New Ways to Measure Our Wellbeing: Fiona Stanley at Progress 2017

Fiona Stanley, Child Health Research professor at the University of Western Australia, addressed the Progress 2017 gathering in Melbourne on 7 June. She explores the ANDI project (Australian National Development Index) a holistic measure of national progress and wellbeing.

Fiona argues that GDP (Gross Domestic Product - the usual indicator of economic growth) is a "very flawed measure" that takes no account of the impact on our wellbeing. She instances the 2009 bushfires as "a great contributor to GDP".



"It is time to end this mis-measure of human progress by economic growth alone."

The ANDI index will measure:

Children and young people’s wellbeing

Community and regional life

Culture, recreation and leisure

Governance and democracy

Economic life and prosperity

Education, knowledge and creativity ​

Environment and sustainability

Justice, fairness and human rights

Health

Indigenous wellbeing

Work and work-life balance

Subjective wellbeing and life satisfaction ​

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Andrew Robb: Master of Weasel Words on Overseas Aid

I was no great surprise that Shadow Finance Minister and Federal member for Goldstein was party to the $4.5 billion cut to Overseas Aid announced today by the Liberal/National Coalition as part of their shameful five minutes to midnight election costings.

I'm reposting my coverage of the Goldstein forum during the 2010 election for Th!nkAboutIt, Survive Past Five: Making Poverty Political, for those who care to listen to Robb's 'qualified' support for overseas aid. The developing world can now eat his words, as the Opposition has walked away, not just from 0.7 but from 0.5 of Gross National Income by 2015.

Words such as  opportunist and populist do not come close to capturing the cynicism of this electioneering ploy.

Celebrating a child's fifth birthday is not an unusual event in Australia. However, a birthday cake with five candles and lots of cards is not what you normally expect at a political debate.

For many in the developing world surviving till your 5th birthday can be a special achievement. On average 25,000 children die each day from preventable diseases.

One of the Make Poverty History Electoral Forums drew a crowd of 280 in Melbourne's Goldstein House of Representatives seat on Friday night 28 May 2010. Over 550 birthday cards were handed to the local parliamentarian to take to Canberra instead of the customary petition. They urged all political parties to increase our Overseas Aid to the UN Millennium Development target of 0.7% of Gross National Income by 2015.

The Speakers included three candidates for this year's Federal election: Andrew Robb MP (Current Member, Liberal Party of Australia) Nick Eden (Australian Labor Party) and Neil Pilling (Australian Greens). Tim Costello, CEO of World Vision Australia - co-sponsors of the event, also addressed the meeting.

It was an unusual political event for other reasons apart from the presence of many locals well below the voting age. It was held in the Ormond Anglican church with sponsorship from Non Government Organisations (NGOs) including those with religious ties. The audience reflected that. Mention was made in the introdcution of a health project by TEAR Australia that styles itself as 'Engaging Christians in God's work of justice and compassion'.

The focus was Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5: reducing child mortality and improving maternal health. Issues raised included the effectiveness of aid money and programs, economic and budgetary constraints, use of consultants and technical assistance, corruption, and government funding of NGOs. An audience question about 'climate change refugee visas' raised the political heat several degrees.

It was well attended for a political forum even though few of the parties' faithful seemed to be in attendance. I'm an Australian Labor Party member and recognised only one other apart from our candidate.

The video is in two parts.

First, the non-politicos: Host Jennifer Lumsden of the Micah Challenge, junior local Barbara, Tim Costello from World Vision and Chair of Make Poverty History, plus the 5th birthday presentation:

Survive Past Five: Make Poverty History from Kevin Rennie on Vimeo.

Next come the candidates of the 3 main political parties:

Make Poverty History: Speaking Politically from Kevin Rennie on Vimeo.

It's seven minutes from seventy but hopefully it's representative of their contributions. To those at the forum: If it seems unbalanced or taken out of context, please use the comments section to set the record straight. Remarks by the Greens candidate, which received the loudest applause of the evening, are absent because I was changing the tape. Sometimes two cameras and two hands are just not enough.

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The Budget: What's in it for...

Labor's 2013-14 Federal budget deserves a close look.

First, an ALP video for the true believers: The Federal Budget in 3 minutes

Next is the usual calm economic analysis from Greg Jericho (Grogs Gamut). For fans of Greg's graphs, this post has six:

The coverage of budgets is invariably an attempt to find the narrative - some overreaching story which apparently explains what has happened and what is coming in the next year or more.

Some stories can be written without even paying heed to the innards of the budget papers. Take the Treasurer's speech which began:

Tonight this Labor Government makes the choice to keep our economy strong and invest in our future. To support jobs and growth in an uncertain world.

This could be cut and pasted and used in any future (or past) budget speech regardless of party, year or state of the economy.

For the most part the political narrative has been written as well. This is the final Swan budget, the Swan song, the attempt to lock in Labor's legacy. No budget is ever really a political game changer, and for the Government this budget comes very much in the shadow of last year's.

A year ago the narrative was about a surplus - the path to surplus was clear and it was also writ in stone as a holy good.

This year, if there is any real narrative beyond the usual humdrum, it is that we might finally be facing up to the reality of the post-GFC world.
Budget faces up to Australia's economic reality

Religious-based Overseas Aid NGO Micah Challenge expressed concerns that the foreign aid target of 0.5% of Gross National Income has been delayed a year and funds diverted to asylum seeker programs within Australia. However, its response contained a strong plus side:

The aid budget will grow by $518 million from last year, reaching almost $5.7 billion dollars, or 0.37% of Gross National Income (GNI).

...the Foreign Minister went out of his way to note the strength of the community campaigning, and Parliamentary lobbying, that led to foreign aid being increased, when many other Government programs are being cut.

...Second, there was a bigger than expected increase in funding to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) programs – a 70% increase from $164 million last year to $279 million in this budget.

...The Government also announced a commitment to invest $391 million over the next for years to accelerate progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals in Asia and the Pacific – targeting, particularly, MDG 1 on hunger, MDG 2 on education and MDG 5 on maternal mortality.
AUSTRALIA'S AID BUDGET 2013-14: DELAYED, DIVERTED BUT STILL DOING GOOD

Finance commentator Michael Pascoe has had this to say to the scaremongers:

After all the rather mindless carry on about having a surplus or not having a surplus and then just how big a deficit it might be, we can at last breathe easy with the knowledge that the federal government will finish this financial year with a deficit of about $19 billion. And that’s actually a fine thing.

And so is a deficit of about $18 billion for the next financial year. Substantially smaller deficits this year or next really wouldn’t be worth the economic cost.
Thanks for the deficit, really

Finally, the expenditure about which Julia Gillard's government, indeed all Australians, should be justly proud - the National Disability Insurance Scheme (DisabilityCare). From Julia's speech to parliament:

Much of the mainstream media have chorused that none of this matters because the election result is in the bag for Abbott's austerity Coalition. They seem to acknowledge that the Liberal National razor will cut most worthwhile initiatives if they win. For the rest of us, there are votes to cast in four months time - a chance to vote for meaningful progressive programs.

A chance to vote against the cynicism and negativity bred of self-interest and greed.

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Tony Abbott To Cut Overseas Climate Aid

We are already into a core/non-core promise about overseas aid from Tony Abbott, Julie Bishop, Andrew Robb and Joe Hockey. From Oxfam Australia:

Coalition costings submitted to Treasury yesterday show Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has broken his promise to match the Government’s commitments on overseas aid, Oxfam Australia said today.

“Mr Abbott has gone back on his word and will cut spending to Australia’s aid program if elected,” said Oxfam Australia Executive Director Andrew Hewett.

Yesterday, in election commitment costings submitted to Treasury, the Coalition outlined at least $294 million in spending cuts from the aid budget, including funds that were earmarked to help poor countries deal with the impacts of climate change.

However, on 23 April, in a foreign affairs speech to the Lowy Institute, Mr Abbott re-affirmed that the “Coalition would match the Government’s commitments on overseas aid”.
Abbott’s cuts to aid budget a broken promise to world’s poor

I must have missed something at the Goldstein Make Poverty History electoral forum. Andrew Robb promised the world. But then it's easy to cut climate change funds when you're on about re[al] action.

The current Opposition Finance shadow minister Robb seems to reading from Barnaby Joyce's script now:

THE government is demanding the opposition restate its commitment to increasing the foreign aid budget after its finance spokesman, Barnaby Joyce, advanced an argument for paring back aid levels to pay off debt and fund Coalition election promises.
Joyce in firing line after aid blooper

You can hear Bishop trying to squirm out of this betrayal of the developing world on Radio Australia: Australian opposition proposes cuts to overseas aid

Was that promise in writing Tony or did you just make it off the cuff? Just a little white lie perhaps.

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Oxfam Australia: More Aid is Not Enough

Oxfam Australia is campaigning to raise the country's overseas aid commitment to 0.7% of GDP, the UN target for 2015. This follows a modest increase in the Australian Budget last week.

More on Th!nk3: Developing World

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