The Treasury’s Living Standards Framework (LSF) Dashboard will give the public greater insight into the Treasury’s work towards higher living standards for New Zealanders, says Chief Economic Adviser Tim Ng.

The first version of the LSF Dashboard was launched online today.

The LSF Dashboard provides indicators of current wellbeing across 12 domains (such as health, housing, safety and social connections); and also around future wellbeing framed by the four capitals of natural capital, human capital, social capital and financial and physical capital. The indicators are internationally comparable where possible, while also reflecting some of what is unique about New Zealand and New Zealanders.

The data in the LSF Dashboard shows the current and future wellbeing of New Zealanders broken down by ethnicity, age, gender, region, family type and area deprivation over time. It also shows the distribution of New Zealanders having high, medium and low wellbeing for each domain. The LSF Dashboard is adult focused at this stage, and refers to those aged 15+ or 18+ depending on the data source.

"A lot of intensive work has gone into creating this first version of the Living Standards Framework Dashboard and it’s satisfying to share what we have achieved in a short time," says Tim Ng.

"The Treasury worked closely with Stats NZ to select the most relevant and meaningful indicators. We also worked closely with a challenge group of academics, independent economists and private sector representatives, who critiqued the development of the LSF Dashboard and our broader Living Standards Framework. The Living Standards Framework itself draws on, and is refined from, substantial international research, earlier work by the OECD, and more than 30 years of work on what New Zealanders value.

"The LSF Dashboard is a component of the Treasury’s Living Standards Framework and has been developed as a practical tool for the mahi we do. The Dashboard provides a set of measures that deepens our understanding of current and future wellbeing and helps inform the Treasury’s advice about what matters for New Zealanders’ living standards; it is not a scorecard on the performance of current or previous governments. We have made the Dashboard public to enhance the transparency of our advice.

"It is also our aim to make the information accessible, interactive and visually engaging for interested members of the public, as well as for researchers and other specialists. Public consultation helped shape the LSF Dashboard and we want it to be something that a broad range of people can engage with.

"The LSF Dashboard launched today is a positive early milestone amid a long-term work in progress. There remain, of course, a number of significant issues and information gaps that are still to be worked through, and we will keep working with others to resolve these in future versions of the Dashboard.

"Among the issues we’re still addressing is how to better embed te ao Māori perspectives of wellbeing in the LSF Dashboard. There are also limitations in how Pacific peoples’ perspectives, cultural identity, and risk and resilience are currently incorporated.

"The wellbeing of children and young people are not directly represented in this first version of the LSF Dashboard. This is in large part due to children and young people not being well represented in survey-based data collections on which the Dashboard draws heavily. In addition, disability is not currently one of the distributions that the LSF Dashboard can provide.

"So the LSF Dashboard will keep developing over time. We will continue to update and refine the indicators, based on the most relevant and robust data available, and reflect them in our broader economic, financial, and policy advice to governments."

ENDS

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