The Government is committed to measuring what matters to improve the lives of all Australians.
Measuring what matters will help us better understand our economy and society while informing policy making.
Treasury is interested in your views on how we can better measure what matters.
Several countries have developed ways to measure progress and well-being.
While methods vary, they tend to assess similar economic, social and environmental outcomes.
Some countries are experimenting with more direct processes by linking progress indicators to priority and policy setting.
The Australian government and state and territory governments publish many indicators in reports, agreements and dashboards. These publications support decision making and accountability for particular policy areas.
Australia does not have a national framework or central set of indicators to complement the existing reporting and track overall progress.
The OECD Framework for Measuring Well-being and Progress is well known and the inspiration for many countries’ approaches.
The OECD is a good starting point for thinking about Australia, but it has limitations in data and coverage.
For this reason, other countries have identified specific objectives, policy areas and indicators to supplement the OECD.
Adding further detail will be important for Australia to reflect our unique conditions.
The October 2022-23 Budget begins the conversation on how Australia might better measure what matters.
Next year, in 2023, the Government will release a new stand‑alone Measuring What Matters Statement. While drawing on the work of the OECD, it will be unique to the Australian context.
You can have your say on the application of the OECD framework to Australia.
When proposing indicators, please reference the data source, or note if no data is available how it can be collected. Suggested indicators should fit the criteria below.
What makes a good progress and well-being indicator?
Indicators should be:
An effective framework will keep core indicator numbers low to support decision making by avoiding unnecessary complexity.
You can submit responses to this consultation up until 31 January 2023. Interested parties are invited to comment on this consultation.
While submissions may be lodged electronically or by post, electronic lodgement is preferred. For accessibility reasons, please submit responses sent via email in a Word or RTF format. An additional PDF version may also be submitted.
All information (including name and address details) contained in submissions will be made available to the public on the Treasury website unless you indicate that you would like all or part of your submission to remain in confidence. Automatically generated confidentiality statements in emails do not suffice for this purpose. Respondents who would like part of their submission to remain in confidence should provide this information marked as such in a separate attachment.
Legal requirements, such as those imposed by the Freedom of Information Act 1982, may affect the confidentiality of your submission.
View our submission guidelines for further information.
Address written submissions to:
Email: MeasuringWhatMatters@Treasury.gov.au