Transforming Australia 2018

Sustainable development holds the promise that we leave future generations with a world better than today’s. However despite Australia's history of strong economic growth, our children and grandchildren face the prospect of being worse off than we are as a result of increasing inequality, environmental degradation and climate change. It is time to change.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of goals and targets that seek to build a better world with no one left behind by 2030. Australia helped to shape the Goals, and committed to achieving them along with all other countries at the United Nations in September 2015.

The 17 SDGs are a call to action to promote economic prosperity and a fair go for all while safeguarding a thriving environment. By setting agreed targets for 2030, the SDGs aim to stimulate action by governments, businesses and the community for the long-term benefit of all of us.

The SDGs offer a framework for approaching the big challenges Australia faces, such as booming population growth in our major cities, uncertainty over the future of work, climate change, environmental degradation, inequality and marginalisation, and the decline of trust in government and business.

The Goals provide targets that focus on improving the health and well-being of our society, and other targets to support prosperity across our region and beyond. In this, the SDGs recognise that we live in a connected age, and with each step Australia takes to contribute to the successful sustainable development of other countries, we also take steps to secure our future.

Underpinning the Goals is the belief that no one should be left behind, which is consistent with the Australian value of ‘a fair go for all’. The SDGs will help promote a fair go for all Australians and for future generations.

The National Sustainable Development Council has prepared this report on Australia’s progress in achieving the SDGs. The Council members have relevant backgrounds in business, academia and the community sector, and have also sought further advice from other experts. The Council has examined progress on all 17 Goals, and specifically assessed 86 targets using 144 separate indicators. Wherever possible, the Council has sought to identify trends in performance using 2000 as a base year in order to assess whether Australia is on track to meet the targets by 2030. In some cases, the report also compares Australia’s performance with that of other countries.

The Council presents this report as a trustworthy, data-driven evidence base to stimulate public conversation about Australia’s future. We hope this report assists all people and organisations to contribute to planning for and shaping a better and more sustainable Australia.

If Australia is to build a better world with no one left behind, we need to be clear about what the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are, how we are currently performing, and where the opportunities exist for transformative change. The Transforming Australia: SDG Progress Report is a starting point—providing a data-driven baseline for Australia’s performance against the most-relevant SDG targets and identifying gaps for further research.

The report has assessed each indicator to determine if Australia is on track to meet the targets by 2030. Each indicator has been allocated a 'traffic light signal' reflecting Australia’s progress. Of the indicators assessed, 35% were determined to be on track, 23% need improvement, 18% need a breakthrough to be achieved, and 24% are off track.

The report demonstrates that Australia is performing relatively well in health (SDG 3) and education (SDG 4). However, the results for reducing inequalities (SDG 10) and climate action (SDG 13) are notably poor, and we have a considerable way to go to achieve the other goals. Australia will not fulfil its commitment to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals without a major change from business as usual.

A wealthy nation: Australia has now enjoyed the longest period of uninterrupted economic growth of any advanced economy. Productivity growth and increased workforce participation of women have supported these gains. Australia is a leader in a number of industries, such as mining, agriculture, education and health. Poverty among the elderly has fallen with changes to the indexation of pensions.

A healthy and skilled nation: Australians generally enjoy high life expectancy and good self-reported health, as well as low levels of illness and injury. We have an increasingly qualified and skilled workforce, one that is adept at problem solving. The deterioration of Australia’s student performance on tests of science, maths and reading is an area of concern, yet contrasts with strong student performance in collaborative problem solving. The latter is also important to Australia’s future.

An open, dynamic and diverse society: Australia attracts people from around the world, providing new skills. Nearly half of Australians were born overseas or have a parent born overseas and more than one fifth speak a language other than English at home. Australia's cities are amongst the world's most liveable and generate the bulk of Australia's income and jobs, but are under increasing pressure from rapid population growth. Australia’s resources have helped lift people in other nations out of poverty and provided many regional communities with industry, jobs and incomes.

Many targets off track: Despite these strengths, almost every goal has at least one target where an important indicator is off track or will require a breakthrough to be achieved. These include the adequacy of Newstart welfare payments (SDG 1), obesity levels (SDG 2), domestic violence (SDG 5), energy and water affordability (SDGs 6 and 7), household debt, stagnant wages growth and underemployment (SDG 8), investment in research and development (SDG9), income inequality and distribution of wealth (SDG 10), housing affordability and homelessness (SDG 11), hazardous waste generation (SDG 12), greenhouse gas emissions (SDG 13), Great Barrier Reef hard coral cover (SDG 14), threatened species (SDG 15), sexual assault and prison population (SDG 16) and official development assistance (SDG 17).

We have a lot of work to do to promote prosperity and fight inequalities while protecting the planet.

Industrial structure: As technology and international trade restructure our economy, jobs and skill needs also change. It's important that we prepare our people, businesses and organisations for the impacts of automation, robotics, the Internet of Things, big data and collective intelligence. However, thus far, investment in research and development, and in knowledge-based capital, by Australian businesses has been lower than in many developed nations.

Working life: Since 2000, real disposable income per capita has grown by 29%, but there has been no increase over the last five years. As wages growth has slowed, many families struggle with rising energy and housing costs. There has been growth in employment and some fall in unemployment, but this has been offset partly by higher underemployment. Many Australians would like to work and earn more. For those workers with low skill levels, the opportunities to retrain throughout their working lives are limited, and home ownership is increasingly elusive for young people.

Mortgaging the future: While the global financial crisis prompted businesses to reduce their debt burdens, household debt is at record highs and government debt is increasing. Australia is heavily reliant on (mostly borrowed) foreign capital for investment. The resilience of Australia's economy may be tested if confronted with a shock that slows the global economy, restricts global capital flows, or substantially pushes up interest rates.

Feeling the pressure: While Australians generally experience good health and high life expectancy, psychological distress, obesity and cost of living pressures, can challenge people’s sense of well-being. Despite low and generally decreasing crime rates, Australians are increasingly fearful, particularly of violence. Violence against women remains distressingly high. Tougher laws have been introduced in response to the fear of crime, and imprisonment rates have risen significantly in recent years.

Still unequal: Despite economic growth, income inequality in Australia has shown no improvement and wealth inequality has risen. Social exclusion fell prior to the global financial crisis, but has since increased. Unemployment benefits have fallen to be more than 20% below the poverty line. The gender pay gap has barely reduced in 20 years, and large gender inequalities remain at home, in the workplace and in society.

Struggling to reconcile: Ten years on from its inception, the Closing the Gap report continues to illustrate the vast gulf of inequality between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Despite some progress on child mortality, early childhood education and Year 12 attainment, Australia is not on track to meet targets for school attendance, reading and numeracy, health and life expectancy, and employment. Improved transparency of measuring and reporting has translated into only modest progress.

Environmental hits and misses: Nowhere is Australia’s failure to look after future generations clearer than with respect to our environment. Despite pockets of success such as water efficiency, Australia has been broadly incapable of delivering on the material aspirations of today while protecting and respecting the environment for tomorrow. Australia's consumption and production habits have generated unsustainable environmental declines, including species loss and diminishing river health.

Climate inaction: Australia is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. We are on a path towards more frequent, severe and prolonged droughts, heatwaves and bushfires, along with degradation of unique natural wonders like the Great Barrier Reef. Australia has a strong stake in an effective international agreement to limit global warming to well below 2°C – and yet, it is not taking the actions needed to meet this target. Without focused efforts to change our energy strategy and approach to resources, greenhouse gas emissions are projected to be higher in 2030 than in 2000.

Growing pains: The pressures of population growth on our ever-sprawling cities are increasingly evident. Congestion keeps rising while access to jobs and services (for many) is diminishing, resulting in environmental degradation and growing social exclusion and inequality. Governments are finding it difficult to fund the infrastructure and services required to keep up with population growth, while development, production and consumption patterns are socially and ecologically unsustainable.

A ‘fair go’ for the next generation: On average, the Australian community enjoys a good quality of life. But inequality means many are being left behind and many young people face the prospect of being worse off than their parents as a result of increasing household debt, high housing costs, climate change and environmental degradation. In an increasingly polarised political and media landscape, we should be looking to strengthen collaboration between government, business, social enterprise and society. To achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we need to overcome the short-term focus that currently dominates our political landscape and work collectively if we are to achieve a ‘fair go’ for the next generation.

Working together: Australia’s commitment to and achievement of the SDGs is a shared responsibility—government, public sector, private sector and the community all have a role to play in shaping our sustainable future, and moving beyond these silos is vital.

The opportunities presented by the SDGs are complex and connected, and require us to work across various disciplines and sectors, and harness diverse perspectives to make better decisions. We need a framework to move towards this 2030 vision—a shared roadmap that continues to be monitored and adapted in an open and collaborative manner.

Green shoots: Signs of a better future are all around us. New forces for good—impact-investing businesses, philanthropic communities, social movements and entrepreneurial individuals—are experimenting with innovative ways to drive social change. They are leveraging their own power and resources, and new tools, to change behaviours and influence policies. While their impact to date has been limited, they are making small dents in even our biggest and most intractable problems. And every small effort counts.