Mike O’Connor: Is this just a gross domestic distraction?

When governments start talking wellbeing, we have good reason to wonder if it’s just an attempt to distract us from the reality of our existence, writes Mike O’Connor. VOTE IN OUR POLL

In the perfect world that doesn’t exist its citizens live in a state of perpetual wellbeing, content with their lot and celebrating the dawn of each new day in anticipation of the blessings it will bestow.

Down here in the real world we tend to take a more sanguine view with trifles like mortgage payments, the stress of raising kids and the pressure of rising prices tending to be front of mind and not leaving a lot of time to ponder our state of wellbeing.

Sprawling in front of the telly with a cold stubby and a bowl of potato chips and watching the footy on a Sunday afternoon after you’ve cut the grass and taken out the rubbish is likely to induce a state of wellbeing.

Watching a politician on that same screen tell you that henceforth, your state of wellbeing will be measured and government policies will be tailored to ensure your wellbeing increases year on year however, is likely to cause you to wonder if someone is pulling your leg.

What a grand thing it would be if each year, thanks to a benign and caring government, we just kept feeling better and better until we reached that point at which it just wasn’t possible to feel any better without exploding into a cascading shower of wellbeingness.

Treasurer, Jim Chalmers. John Feder/ The Australian.

Enter federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers whose maiden budget in October will feature a “wellbeing” statement intended to measure how Australians are faring in their daily lives to better guide policy development to ensure it is pursuing the “right kind of growth”.

It may come as no surprise to hear he has lifted the idea from New Zealand where in 2019, its Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern introduced a “wellbeing” budget that promised to improve mental health, reduce child poverty, cater to Maori aspirations, expand the digital economy and – surprise, surprise – aid the transition to low emissions.

It sounded ever so lovely, coming as it did with a promise to build 100,000 government houses.

Kiwis decided that if it sounded too good to be true, it probably was and Ardern’s Labour Party is now well behind the National coalition opposition in the polls and would be comprehensively defeated if an election was held tomorrow. The 100,000 houses? About 5000 were built and the scheme has been abandoned.

Wellbeing? A recent poll found 29 per cent of Kiwis were apprehensive about their future and blamed the government as the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand reported last week house price falls had accelerated and were now spread across the broad market and recession loomed.

Ardern in turn pinched the idea from the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan where Gross National Happiness, based on a Buddhist concept, is measured and defined as “a multidimensional development approach seeking to achieve a harmonious balance between material wellbeing and the spiritual, emotional and cultural needs of society.”

Fantastic. Forget New Zealand. Let’s all move to Bhutan. Crystal clear air, happy chappies everywhere and wellbeing by the bucketload unless of course you happen to be a member of the Lhotshampa ethnic minority.

It made up about a sixth of the population until it was summarily expelled in an act of ethnic cleansing which saw more than 100,000 people driven from their land and homes. Twenty years on, many are still living in camps in Nepal.

Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness, say the critics, is neither gross nor national but rather “an idea born on the backs of oppressed minorities who have been whitewashed out of the central narrative. It’s a happiness for the ruling class at the expense of those whose land and livelihoods were stolen from them”.

If that’s wellbeing then I’ll settle for a cold beer and footy on the telly.

When governments start talking about measuring wellbeing and promising their actions will be directed to making us all feel so much better about life then we have good reason to wonder if it’s not just another snow job designed to distract us from the reality of our existence.

Mr Chalmers and his cabinet colleagues are charged with overseeing issues such as mental health, housing, the environment and the economic and strategic wellbeing of the nation. That’s what they are paid to do.

If they do their job then we will be happy enough. Contentment is the key and that comes from within and not from warm and fuzzy government promises to lead us to the Promised Land.