A National Conversation on What Matters Most for Australia: Resiliency at the Core?

With the release of its Measuring What Matters framework the Australian Government has taken the first steps to embedding wellbeing in policy and decision-making. Critical to its success will be gaining the perspectives and buy-in of the Australian public. This paper provides the foundations to support the government and community sector to embark on a national conversation on Measuring What Matters. It explores the benefits of Australia engaging in a national conversation on wellbeing and outlines how it could be done successfully and suggests next steps for the process.

A national conversation on Measuring What Matters would:

• create better understanding of what matters to individuals and communities 
• secure buy-in from the community and wider sector
• de-politicise the initiative and help ensure its longevity
• empower individuals and strengthen democracy, and
• bring all Australians along in the process by engaging widely with the community.

Proposed next steps 

1. Establish an advisory group, composed of key government representatives, organisations and individuals with expertise in wellbeing policy approaches and participatory engagement
2. The Federal Government commits to integrating the findings from the national conversation into the Measuring What Matters Framework. Doing so will help ensure the Measuring What Matters Framework is effectively informing government decisions beyond its measurement capability to improve the wellbeing of both people and planet. (Source: Analysis & Policy Observatory)

This National Conversation must include Affective Domain considerations, not merely the Cognitive Domain… Yes, the What, Where, How, Who and When, are all vital considerations, but it is the Why that matters most. Getting that right is an imperative difficult to juggle if best-practice is ignored due to the passive or active social-political fecklessness.

Resiliency is at the core of what matters most, and it requires an a great deal more than a group think unanchored to what is psycho-socially and health and wellbeing best-practice that goes beyond symptom management of cultural scaffolding. 

See also

1) Social Determinants & Substance Use – Beyond the Policy ‘Silo’ Pragmatics

2)  Drug Policy – Building or Demolishing Community Resilience?

3) Things That Matter Most: Resiliency at the Centre? )