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Money not leading to happiness

THE saddest federal electorate is in the heart of Sydney, the richest and most expensive city in the country, while the happiest voters live in one of the nation's poorest rural electorates.
In a survey that turns the accepted wisdom on its head, one of the most disadvantaged electorates in Australia, the Queensland seat of Wide Bay, has emerged as the one where people are at their most content.
Wide Bay, which takes in the coast of Hervey Bay and the World Heritage-listed Fraser Island, has topped Australia's 150 electorates on the basis of wellbeing and sense of community, according to the first electorate-based national index of well-being, compiled by Deakin University.
In standard of living, health, achievement in life, personal relationships, sense of safety, connection to the community and future security, the index found Wide Bay came out on top - despite limping along at the bottom of other surveys that measure employment, income, education and economic strength.
Eight of the top nine happiest electorates are poor and isolated rural communities, while all of the saddest seats are metropolitan or outer metropolitan seats.
Only Treasurer Peter Costello's seat of Higgins in affluent east Melbourne bucked the trend, as it featured in the top 10 happiest electorates.
Sydney's MP, ALP front-bencher Tanya Plibersek, told said she was "sad" to hear her electorate contained the unhappiest voters in Australia but understood why they should feel like that.
"I'm sad to hear that, but it's an electorate full of extremes and it doesn't surprise me," said Mrs Plibersek.
Wide Bay's MP and federal Transport Minister Warren Truss was equally, but pleasantly, surprised by the findings.
"Perhaps it also shows you don't need to be rich to be happy," he said. "I have always said our part of the country was a great place to live."
The researchers for insurer Australian Unity said Australia did not have extremes of wellbeing, but that most of the top-scoring electorates had low population density, more women, more people older than 55, less income inequality and more married people.
Deakin University's Bob Cummins said there was a clear link between lack of wellbeing and population density.
"People in these rural electorates often have the advantage of additional disposable income since the cost of living, particularly housing, tends to be reduced outside the cities," he said.
The top nine electorates for wellbeing were Wide Bay, Richmond (New South Wales), Eden-Monaro (New South Wales), Ryan (Queensland), Higgins, Bendigo (Victoria), Murray (Victoria), Riverina (New South Wales) and Mayo (South Australia).
The bottom nine were Sydney, Parramatta (New South Wales), Perth (Western Australia), Gorton (Victoria), Hasluck (Western Australia), Werriwa (New South Wales), Reid (New South Wales), Rankin (Queensland) and Grayndler (New South Wales).
Victoria was the happiest state and Western Australia was the saddest, scoring lowest in terms of sense of community and the most insecure future.
Mrs Plibersek said her electorate had extremes of poverty, in Redfern and Waterloo, and high incomes, which made people aware of differences in their lives.
"I think people have a greater sense of disadvantage if they can see very different levels of income next to each other," she said.
Mr Truss believes the natural advantages of a beach and rural Queensland lifestyle contributes to his constituents' wellbeing.
"While we don't have the wealth of many of the other electorates, in our communities there remains a real sense of neighbourliness," he said.
Mr Costello said the inclusion of Higgins as the only truly metropolitan seat in the top nine was in part due to volunteerism.
"People in Higgins have a wonderful community spirit and a high degree of voluntary activity, something which I work to encourage as the local member.
Community spirit is the greatest contributor to happiness."