Australia will soon have national indicators to measure its wellbeing.
The federal government is developing a wellbeing index, which it says is Australia's first national framework on wellbeing, and is due to be released around the middle of the year.
It aims to monitor progress in key social and environmental areas in order to lift living standards and provide greater opportunities for more people.
Some of the key policy areas raised in over 160 submissions from organisations are around inequality, mental health, First Nations Australians and climate change.
Margot Rawsthorne is Associate Professor at the University of Sydney and specialises in community development.
She welcomes policy informed by community needs but says it requires a longer term approach.
I think that's still a work in progress, and maybe it's actually too complex. To have impact on these entrenched disadvantages, we need to be having at least a decade commitment, and in the Australian context, a decade commitment has not been very easy for the last 30 or 40 years. Putting these things in place and actually allowing them to have a chance, but a chance over time.
