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Progress in Australia: The headline dimensions

Continuing development and other initiatives

The headline indicators form a core set of statistics for reporting on Australia's progress. But the dimensions we have chosen will change over time, because, for example:

• Thinking may change about what is important to national progress.
  
• There may be conceptual developments relating to one or more dimensions of progress (such as social cohesion).
  
• There may be statistical developments that allow us to measure aspects of progress for which we do not at present construct indicators.

• The Australian Collaboration (a group of major national non-governmental organisation peak bodies including: Australian Conservation Foundation, Australian Council of Social Services, Australian Consumers Association, Australian Council for Overseas Aid, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia, and National Council of Churches) produced two reports Where are we going: comprehensive social, cultural and environmental reporting, and A Just and Sustainable Australia. They can be found at:
  
  http://www.australiancollaboration.com.au/booksreports

• The OECD's report (2001) The Well-being of Nations: the Role of Human and Social Capital covers the integration of societal wellbeing measures with economic and environmental ones. It can be found at:
  
  http://www.SourceOECD.org

• The Danish government report entitled Structural Monitoring International Benchmarking of Denmark, comparing Denmark's performance on a wide range of social, economic and environmental criteria with a number of countries, can be found at:
  
  http://www.fm.dk/1024/vispublikationesForside.asp?artikelid=4503

• Statistics New Zealand's Monitoring Progress Towards a Sustainable New Zealand, at:
  
  http://www.stats.govt.nz
  
• In March 2005, the UK Government launched a new Sustainable Development Strategy, called Securing the Future, which sets out the vision of sustainable development through to 2020. It builds on the 1999 strategy, A better quality of life. The Strategy highlights four priority areas for action: Sustainable consumption and production, climate change and energy, protecting natural resources and enhancing the environment, creating sustainable communities and a fairer world:
  
  http://www.sustainable-development.gov.uk/progress/index.htm
• In 2004, the USA's General Accounting Office, as part of their Key National Indicators Initiative published a report - Informing Our Nation: Improving How to Understand and Assess the USA's Position and Progress. It can be found at:
  
  http://www.gao.gov/npi
  
• The Irish Central Statistical Office's Measuring Ireland's Progress
  
  
• Other useful references are provided by the International Institute of Sustainable Development's web site, at:
  
  http://www.iisd.ca