ABOUT THIS RELEASE
This paper was presented at the December 2004 ANZSEE/CofFEE conference (A Future that Works Economics, Employment and the Environment) held in Newcastle, Australia. The paper describes how the demand for measures of national progress culminated in the development of a new ABS major publication in 2002 Measuring Australias Progress (MAP). MAP is built around 15 headline indicators that span Australias economy, society and environment, and is designed to allow readers to make their own assessment about whether life in Australia is getting better. A second issue now called Measures of Australias Progress was released in 2004 and updated summary indicators were released to the ABS web site in April 2005.