About us

The Wellbeing Manifesto has been developed by The Australia Institute, Australia’s foremost public interest think tank. You can find out all you want to know about the Institute from its website, www.tai.org.au.

The material on this website has been prepared by Clive Hamilton, Richard Eckersley and Richard Denniss.

Clive Hamilton

Dr Clive Hamilton is the Institute’s Executive Director. He has previously been an academic economist and a senior public servant. He has held visiting academic positions at the University of Cambridge, the Australian National University, and the University of Sydney.

Clive’s research work at the Institute has emphasised climate change policy, measures of well-being (especially the Institute's Genuine Progress Indicator), privatisation and taxation issues.

He has published on a wide range of issues including measures of national progress, the environment, and spirituality. His latest book, Growth Fetish, published by Allen & Unwin in 2003, was a best-seller.
 

Richard Eckersley

Richard Eckersley is a fellow at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University, Canberra. His work explores issues to do with progress and wellbeing, and includes: measures of progress; the relationships between economic growth, quality of life and ecological sustainability; the social and cultural determinants of health and happiness; visions of the future; and young people and their world.

Richard's work has been brought together in a book, Well & Good: How we feel and why it matters (Text, 2004). He has edited three other books and has published over 100 journal papers, book chapters, monographs, and specialist magazine articles. He is the co-author of a national index of subjective wellbeing, the first of its kind in the world. He is also a member of the board of Families Australia, a peak national body representing families; a member of the ACT Government's Community Inclusion Board; and a director of Australia 21, a not-for-profit company set up to address, through interdisciplinary research and development, some of the major challenges facing Australia this century.

His former positions include: ministerial consultant in two Commonwealth Government portfolios; principal issue analyst in the Office of the Chief Executive of CSIRO; senior analyst with the Australian Commission for the Future; head of the CSIRO Media Liaison Office; and science reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.

Richard Denniss

Dr Richard Denniss is the Deputy Director of The Australia Institute. From 1995 to 2000 he lectured in economics at the University of Newcastle before joining The Australia Institute as a Research Fellow. When Natasha Stott Despoja became leader of the Australian Democrats, Richard joined her team, first as a Senior Adviser and later as Chief of Staff, before returning to the Institute in October 2002.

Richard has published widely on the impact of policy on economic efficiency and equity and is particularly interested in the economics of environmental and labour market regulation. His research at the Institute has included topics as diverse as wasteful consumption in Australia, the accountability of private schools to public values and an examination of the potential impact of the Australia/US Free Trade Agreement on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

He is the co-author, with Clive Hamilton, of Affluenza (Allen & Unwin, June 2005).

Richard gained a PhD in 2003 and is in demand as a speaker at seminars and conferences.

We would like to express our appreciation to the New Economics Foundation in London for permission to base the Australian Wellbeing Manifesto on its own. The NEF's manifesto may be read here.

We are grateful to the Melbourne Community Foundation, Morawetz Social Justice Fund for providing financial support to develop and promote the Wellbeing Manifesto.

If you would like to ask about or comment on the Manifesto, please send an email to mail@tai.org.au