The Government’s wellbeing approach to its budget and policy-making has been held up as a world-leading new approach. But how new is it really, and most importantly, will it actually make us better off?

In a recent article in the NBR, TDB Director Phil Barry discusses some of the risks and potential setbacks of this approach, raising four key questions:

1.   will it encourage the government to use the wrong tool for the job;
2.   who is best placed to assess and promote wellbeing, government or ourselves;
3.   who becomes the champion of financial discipline in the government if the Treasury is focused on assessing overall wellbeing; and
4.   where does productivity feature in the framework?

Unpacking the Wellbeing framework from another perspective, uncover the details in Phil’s article.