To Grow But Not Despoil
Business News 15 April 1996
Which is more important, the number of dollars earned by people in WA or the quality of life they enjoy ?
Despite what most econometricians, and strategic planners appear to believe, these are not interdependent. There is an increasing difference in Perth between standard of living and quality of life.
Standard of living is a statistic determined by measuring various aspects of our life, such as income level, housing ownership and size, number of vehicles in the family, employment rate, and so on.
Only things that are measurable can be included in a standard of living index.
Quality of life, on the other hand, is not statistics based because it considers our non-measurable values and attitudes.
You cannot measure a sense of security, or enjoyment of natural beauty, or access to social opportunities, or the importance to us of clean air, good education, multiculturalism, urban spaciousness, and how safely our kids can play outdoors.
If government planners determining our future are relying only on statistical input into their thinking and discussions, then they are looking only at standard of living issues, not quality of life issues.
This is understandable in that there is safety in numbers, they are tangible, you can plot charts and graphs, you can know exactly what is being discussed, nothing is fuzzy or uncertain.
You can look at the actual employment percentages and dollar income figures for the minerals industry over the past 50 years. You can plot the graph and extend or extrapolate the lines to indicate what the future economy might hold, such as an increase in down-stream processing.
You can then say conclusively that WA needs industrial sites for down-stream processing close to key regional centres, and that "sufficient land is set aside for heavy industry near Perth" (State Planning Strategy Discussion Paper: The Economy, p vii, Nov 95).
What is wrong with that, you ask? Sounds very logical and seems responsible thinking by people trying to make sensible plans for our state.
What is wrong is their view that the future is based on an extension of measurable activity in the past, such as the growth of the minerals industry. Extending that pattern into the future used to be adequate for predicting the future to an acceptable degree of accuracy.
Now the world is changing so quickly and so deeply that such patterns cannot be sufficiently accurate to use as a basis for prediction.
The inaccuracies can often be misleading. Not just off track by a few degrees, but actually heading us in the wrong direction.
Maybe we do not want heavy industry sites near Perth. Maybe we believe that the quality of life will be too adversely affected by these despoilers of things important to us, like clean air and water.
Maybe we believe that certain types of economic growth, though highly possible, are not desirable for the long term quality of life of our kids and grandkids. Some things are more important than earning the maximum number of dollars today, no matter what the cost to tomorrow.
The WA Planning Commission does not believe this, according to its eight documents, the State Planning Strategy. The Commission is probably willing to be convinced, if we could only show them the data, the figures, the statistics to prove that you and I care more about the quality of future life than about short term economic gain.
But there is no way to measure our beliefs. All we can do is speak them out loud. We can say things like: Yes, we want WA to grow and have a healthy economy.
Yes, we want our kids to have jobs. Yes, we want to have a stable secure retirement knowing our economy can provide the aged care services and amenities we will need.
But not at the destruction of what we value so highly - the quality of life in Perth and WA. Forever.
There are other options for sustained economic growth that will not jeopardise our quality of life now and in the future. They may mean that WA does not get as rich as quickly.
They may mean that some us are prepared to maintain our standard of living rather than increase it materially.
Those other options may also mean that some politicians, business leaders, respected professionals, and other members of The Establishment in Perth are out of touch with the changing values of you and I. Just because we cannot measure the attitude and value change occurring, does not mean it should be ignored.
It comes down to quality of life vs standard of living issues. This is the real decision that the State Planning Commission is making on our behalf.
Which is more important: living in a safe, clean, humans-first community or having material wealth in an alienating, polluted, traffic-first American-style siege city?
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