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Home > Interview with Rohan
Wellbeing Index
Interview with Rohan |
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Following the release of the BRW's 2006 Rich List, Mr Rohan Mead, Group Managing Director of
Australian Unity joined a discussion on Radio National about the measurement of wealth, power
and wellbeing in Australia.
The following is an excerpt from the interview with Kate Evans on the ABC Radio
National program, Australia Talks Back on 2nd October 2006.
| Kate: |
Should we be measuring ‘wealth' in a different way than
just how much money we have? What exactly is it that you try to measure with the Wellbeing Index? |
| Rohan: |
We've sought with the Wellbeing Index, over the last
five years, to add to the range of measures that Australians are used to in terms of the assessment
of prosperity and national wellbeing, and to add to things that we know well, such as GDP
measures or things like the BRW Rich List.
We look at aspects that comprise subjective wellbeing for individuals and for communities, such
as their sense of community connection, their health, their own personal financial wellbeing and
package that up into a credible index of Australians subjective wellbeing that can then be added
to these other measures in terms of how we think we might be going as a society. |
| Kate: |
We were talking about being rich and powerful earlier, and
I believe you don't actively measure power but of course you do measure these other criteria when
assessing people's lives such as personal relationships, community connection and so on, so where
does income and that aspect of wealth fit into the Australian psyche? |
| Rohan: |
Well income is actually very important and it wouldn't
surprise anyone for that to be the case. But it's only important to a degree. Income is relevant
as a provider of flexibility, so that individuals and families can deal with changes in life and
challenges that life throws up. But that threshold is usually reached reasonably quickly.
We found through the Index, which is boiled down to a percentage score, that for households, on
incomes of between $31,000 and $60,000, to buy an extra 'percentage point' of wellbeing, it would
cost you some say $20,000 worth of additional income. In contrast, if that household is on an
income of $91,000 to $120,000 you would need an additional $300,000 to buy that same percentage
point of wellbeing. So in other words, you get to a threshold and the value of money to buy
‘happiness', reduces exponentially. |
| Kate: |
So when you assess these often immeasurable things in these
financial terms, where does something like community connection fit in? |
| Rohan: |
Well community connection is in fact one of the largest
single drivers of a sense of personal wellbeing. We recently compiled a report that compared the
wellbeing of Australians by Federal Electoral Division.
We found that in areas where there was a lower sense of community connection, which was perhaps
unsurprisingly in more urban areas with higher density living, like inner-Sydney with seats such
as Grayndler, Parramatta, Reid and Sydney, that there was a much lower sense of wellbeing - and
that this was attributable to a lack of community connection.
That was in contrast to relatively poorer areas such as Eden-Monaro, Murray, Richmond, Riverina,
Bendigo, Wide Bay and Ryan, which had very high levels of wellbeing. Clearly the difference here
is the connections to people around them – not the money in their pocket. |
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© 2008 Australian Unity Ltd |
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