Today we’re featuring not one, but a number of special guests from a public conversation Anthony hosted earlier this year, on how we go about the much-needed tasks of redefining our notion of progress - and developing new ways to measure it. The panel was joined by a full house of around 300 people, together generating one of our most compelling public forums to date.

Tim Costello AO is Chief Advocate for World Vision and one of Australia’s most recognised voices on social justice, leadership and ethics.

Dr Melissa Weinberg is a TEDx Speaker and well-known wellbeing researcher, who led the research for the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index.

And Mike Salvaris is co-founder of the OECD Global Progress Research Network, and a driving force behind the development of the Australian National Development Index.

It has long been recognised that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is an inadequate measure of society’s success and development. Yet it and our focus on economic growth driven by wasteful consumerism persist, despite the range of crises they cause and the growing recognition that limitless consumption doesn’t make for healthy, meaningful human life.

This conversation explores how we can change these flawed narratives, systems and measures, to guide us to a sustainable economy geared towards quality of life, rather than quantity of stuff. Along the way, we learn (or re-learn) plenty about Australia, the world, deeper human nature, and each other. And the sort of probing questions, fascinating findings, and inspiring projects covered here, all offer great grist for the mill for those of us looking to reset our guiding stars of happiness, success and progress.

Is happiness the goal? Does it even work to try to increase our happiness? What makes for a meaningful life, and how do we institute that as the basis of our national accounts? What kind of leadership can we develop to this end? And how do we juggle the need to campaign on specific urgent issues, with the overarching need to address the common source of those issues?

We adopted a fairly snappy format for this forum. After brief introductions you’ll hear each speaker offer a 5-minute ‘fire-starter’. Then we launch into extensive dialogue with the audience.

With thanks to Professor John Wiseman and the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute for their support of this event.

Production by Ben Moore & Anthony James.

Music:
Let Them Know, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra

Find more:
Australian National Development Index.

National Sustainable Living Festival, where this forum took place in February 2017

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