Released alongside the latest NSW Budget Papers was the Performance and Wellbeing Consultation Paper from the NSW Treasury, which sought to exhibit proposed themes, performance indicators, and metrics for many categories of social wellbeing – including housing. With input from our members, Shelter NSW was able to put in a formal submission on the proposed framework for ‘measuring what matters’ in NSW.

We agree with the NSW Government that we need a framework. However, we are not confident that the framework (as exhibited) will be strong, transparent, and clearly able to articulate, understand, monitor, report on, and improve several social wellbeing outcomes. Additionally, we encourage the NSW Government to view the concerns of low-income people as an effective proxy for the concerns of the many. A better and fairer housing system for low-income people will be better and fairer for all.

Our submission noted the criticality of the upcoming NSW Homelessness Strategy 2024-2034 – a strategy that ought to provide guidance for the whole state and ultimately be reflected in the longer-term performance and wellbeing framework