Who have been the winners and losers over the past nine years?
Even before the election date has formally been announced, the rhetoric from both major parties is whittling the complexity of our current condition to a simple set of key issues. Our attention is being focused on the economy, climate, defence, and the cost of living. These are all very pressing concerns and would benefit from honest information and full, frank conversations. Although we know in politics, open discussions are hard to come by. It is largely a fear-driven profession that has mastered the art of distraction and deception.
We also know that the issues the candidates are highlighting are only those in which they can claim past success or for which they have already earmarked repentant funding. The plethora of real-life concerns that citizens still struggle with daily is lost in the noise and lights of the big-boy power plays. Likewise, the actions taken over the past nine years are usually drowned out by the song and dance of the last few weeks of term.
The Government Scorecard (The Scorecard) has been created to bring some balance back to the picture of Australia being portrayed by our politicians in campaign mode. It exists to allow voters to be fully informed about the achievements and failures of the current government and to determine for themselves whether they align with the obvious priorities these results represent. It is true that there is only so much time and money to go around, and so difficult choices must be made about winners and losers in the political game. This document allows you to question for yourself whether you are comfortable with the winners and losers chosen by the liberal government during their nine years in office.
The Scorecard shows the outcomes of the values employed by the Coalition Government since 2013 and enables you to decide whether these align with your own beliefs about what is critical for our country.
While this report presents a set of indicators to judge the success of the current government, it does not and nor cannot contain every single statistic of value in determining the state of the nation and the health of the communities within it. Nevertheless, every single fact contained here is important. They are all important because each number represents the quality of a person’s life.
The measures covered in the report have been chosen to create a broad and holistic picture of policy outcomes over the last decade. They have been inspired by two key frameworks, being the Gross National Happiness Index[i] and the Balanced Scorecard[ii].
Measures have been grouped into six categories which present performance in the areas of:
- Community safety and vitality
- Individual health and wellbeing
- Income, wealth and working life
- Educational outcomes
- Governance integrity and accountability
- The economy
The economy is intentionally placed last in this series as it the area that you will already hear most about during the election. Note that these measures also provide trends since 2013 to identify progress in each area. Where data is not available, suggestions have been made for indicators that could be of value in the future.
This section of the report covers the first success area for the Community category being
C1. Australians in stable and affordable housing
Feedback on the data contained in this report is welcome and greatly appreciated. If you would like to provide comment, further analysis, or would like to suggest any additional measures please send a message to contact@3rd-edge.com.
[i] GNH HAPPINESS INDEX – GNH Centre Bhutan
[ii] The Balanced Scorecard—Measures that Drive Performance (hbr.org)
Other Indicators To Be Published In This Series
In the community category, the additional performance indicators will be published.
| Vision of Community Thriving | Key Performance Indicator(s) |
| C1. Australians in stable and affordable housing | Home ownership Housing affordability Public housing waiting list Homelessness |
| C2. People free from violence in their homes and in their neighbourhoods | Crime rate – actual and perceived Rate of domestic violence |
| C3. Children would be nurtured and protected from harm | Rate of child sexual abuse Rate of violence against children Rate of youth detention Children in out-of-home care |
| C4. Neighbours would know and support each other | Knowing your neighbours Rate of social support |
| C5. Everyone would have food and water security | Food security Water security |
| C6. All citizens and visitors would feel welcome regardless of gender, race or religion. | Feeling part of the local community Migration rates Asylum seeker detention Experienced discrimination |
| C7. A high level of engagement in civic life | Civic engagement |
| C8. Active participation in helping the less fortunate for example, through donations and volunteering | Volunteering – unpaid voluntary work Donation rates |
| C9. Support provided for other countries and communities in trouble | Foreign aid spending |
| C10. Care shown for our planet | Land clearing Carbon emissions Uptake of renewable energyAnimal extinctions Citizen faith that the climate crisis is being taken seriously |
The 3rd Edge 
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