TasCOSS’s 2025/26 Budget Priorities Statement, A Good Life for Tasmanians: Getting the Basics Right, makes 24 evidence-informed recommendations aimed at ensuring every Tasmanian has the chance to live a good life.
A crucial role for governments is to ‘get the basics right’ — that is, to ensure that all its citizens have access to the essentials we need for wellbeing and living a good life.
TasCOSS advocates for a strategic approach that focusses on people and their wellbeing as key drivers of our economy. When we prioritise wellbeing, we are building the capacity of individuals and communities to respond to shocks that are outside their control. We are also building the capacity of our systems to respond to increasing complexity and rapid change.
There is an intrinsic value in investing in wellbeing and there is an economic value in lifting the capacity of people to participate and contribute meaningfully in the social, cultural and economic life of their communities.
Informed in part by TasCOSS’s A Good Life: A Wellbeing Framework for Tasmania developed in 2018, this submission covers five critically important areas: collective wellbeing and promoting a lived experience voice; preventive health; safe, secure and affordable housing; income support, food security and energy affordability; and public transport.