This submission is in response the invitation on the Treasury website to comment on the paper by Conal Smith: Treasury Living Standards Dashboard: Monitoring Intergenerational Wellbeing (June 2018).
ACNZ agrees with the 13 proposed domains of current wellbeing, and the use of life satisfaction as an overall proxy measure for current wellbeing. We strongly support inclusion of “Cultural identity / Okaipotanga” as a distinct domain. We feel this acknowledges the unique status of Maori as tangata whenua, and the importance of culture for New Zealand’s ethnically diverse population.
ACNZ also supports inclusion of “Self and aspirations” as a separate domain. We commend Treasury, and the author of the report, on their efforts to identify and measure subjective aspects of wellbeing that may be challenging to incorporate into an economic model, but are vital components of life satisfaction.