Mark Donaldson VC joins national conversation on progress

ABS Media Release, 19 September 2011

Victoria Cross for Australia recipient and Young Australian of the Year 2010, Corporal Mark Donaldson VC today became the latest prominent Australian to share their views on national progress, as part of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) national conversation on progress, which all Australians are encouraged to join at www.abs.gov.au/about/progress/blog.

Joining the likes of Dick Smith, Michael Stutchbury, (The Australian), and Richard Aedy, (Life Matters), Corporal Donaldson said in a video contribution to the blog that, to him, Australia’s progress meant “where we are going to be in the future - not just in the prosperity of the country but across all the facets of Australian life”.

The recipient of Australia's highest military honour also said he felt that important aspirations for Australia’s national progress were “to be focusing on the future, as opposed to the instant gratification of the present”, and “investment in youth … as well as high education standards” and that “having the right balance of community and society on one side, and efficiency as a nation on the other side, would be a key element of achieving this.”

The video contribution by Corporal Mark Donaldson VC to the national conversation on progress can be viewed on the Measures of Australia’s Progress (MAP) Blog, where all Australians are invited to have their say over the next few weeks www.abs.gov.au/about/progress/blog.

Your views on the following questions will help us improve the way we measure and talk about Australia’s progress:

What matters most in life?
Is life in Australia getting better?
The Australian Statistician, Mr Brian Pink said the views of other prominent Australians will appear regularly over the next few weeks.

"The ABS would like people from all corners of Australia to contribute their views of what they think is important to Australian life” Mr Pink said.