The single most important reason for having a strong economy is to improve people’s lives. Entire sectors are dedicated to this purpose across health, education and social care.
Yet the wellbeing workforce is rarely at the centre of the economic agenda. Unsurprising then that Australia’s economic debate is often disconnected from people.
If we want to see productivity that improves wellbeing, these sectors are where we need to focus. Providing decent wages for the demanding work of health, care and education. Investing in new and better service approaches. Addressing fragmented systems that cannot meet increasing and increasingly complex levels of health, legal and social need.
The government’s upcoming Jobs Summit and its budgeting for wellbeing provide the perfect opportunity to focus on the connection between a strong economy and improved lives.
The focus on wellbeing is long overdue. Economics is a social science after all, but the way we currently determine the strength of our economy, through GDP, tells us little about the social impact of our economy. It provides no insight into whether people are well, whether we have adequate incomes and housing, or whether we’re socially and economically connected.
We have to stop thanking people for doing good work but then claiming budget constraints prevent decent wages or investment in essential skills and technology. We need hard-headed recognition that the wellbeing workforce makes both a social and an economic contribution.
Much of this work is done by the country’s 60,0000 charities, with more than 1 million workers and many more volunteers, whose social contribution is highly valued. But their $129 billion economic contribution is less well known and often neglected in major economic debates.
Charity workers are doing the heavy lifting to support Australia’s health and wellbeing. They provide emergency relief after climate crises; secure accommodation for people facing homelessness; provide legal advice when women and children experience violence at home.
Now, this sector, along with others that are experts in supporting people and communities are in trouble themselves.
Acute teacher shortages are becoming chronic, as burnt out educators leave in droves with insufficient numbers of students to replace them. Our healthcare system lacks enough workers with the right skills to meet complex and chronic need. Social services are facing increasing demand that they are unable to meet.
The impacts of Covid-19 have exacerbated these problems but they were emerging well before the pandemic. The conditions in which these critical services are delivered have been marked by years of underfunding, low wages, and inadequate investment in the basic foundations of productivity: training, equipment, digital transformation, and outcomes measurement.
The Jobs Summit in September will set directions for the growth, productivity and sustainability of Australia’s economy. Healthcare, education and social services need to be at the heart of these discussions. When we talk about boosting incomes to improve living standards and productivity, our health, social service and education workforces must be prioritised. When we identify investment in skills and capability, they need to be in support of responding to increasingly entrenched and complex need.
Starting in October, the Budget process can begin to identify how to fund that investment for improved wellbeing. It will take time and it will be hard work. It will require new ways of working, in design and delivery, as well as new approaches to funding for healthcare, social services and education.
Together, these processes create an opportunity to reset the economic conversation in Australia away from ever-increasing numbers in tax revenues, expenditures and debt; towards economic growth to improve people’s lives.
As we get closer to these processes, the jostling of perspectives will become louder. But some of the most important voices will not be there, too busy on the frontlines supporting Australia’s health and wellbeing; tackling the increasingly entrenched and complex problems that are undermining our economic prosperity and wellbeing.
While these members of the wellbeing workforce are at work, we would do well to keep their contributions front of mind in the forthcoming economic debates. We can’t afford not to.