Across Australia and beyond, many people sense that something is fundamentally misaligned in how our economy is organised. Despite decades of growth, rising productivity, and technological advancement, experiences of disconnection, insecurity, and ecological degradation have intensified rather than eased. In a recent episode of Voices of the New Economy, Robin, Coordinator of Live Well Tasmania, invites us to look beneath familiar policy debates and ask a more foundational question: what would an economy look like if it were designed to help people live well, together, within ecological limits?
Robin’s work sits at the intersection of economics, sustainability, and community development. Her perspective is shaped by years of engagement with grassroots initiatives, alongside formal training in economics, environmental science, and sustainable communities. Rather than treating economic change as a technical problem to be solved through incentives or efficiency, she frames it as a relational and psychosocial challenge. At the heart of her approach is a shift away from material accumulation towards trust, care, and meaningful contribution.
From Growth to Living Well
Live Well Tasmania was founded in response to the growing recognition that economic growth cannot continue indefinitely on a finite planet. Yet the organisation’s focus is not simply on reducing consumption or emissions. Instead, it asks what needs to replace growth as the guiding principle of social and economic life.
The answer, Robin suggests, lies in the conditions that actually make life meaningful: connection, purpose, belonging, and the ability to contribute to something larger than oneself. Community gardens, repair cafés, creative spaces, and shared projects are not treated as peripheral activities, but as sites where trust is built and social fabric is repaired. These are spaces where people come together, not as competitors or consumers, but as collaborators.
This emphasis reflects a deeper insight. Sustainability is not only about external systems of production and consumption. It is also about the internal landscapes of identity, motivation, and wellbeing. Without addressing the psychosocial drivers of overconsumption and competition, technical solutions are unlikely to be sufficient.
What Is Community Based Income?
A central focus of the conversation is Community Based Income (CBI), a proposal being developed and advocated through Live Well Tasmania. At its core, CBI is a liveable income paid in return for socio-ecological contribution. This contribution may take the form of caring work, education and training, community projects, or activities that build personal wellbeing and social connection.
Unlike Universal Basic Income, which is unconditional and paid to everyone regardless of circumstance, CBI is designed to be tailored to individual capabilities and needs. It begins by recognising that not everyone starts from the same position. Many people experience barriers linked to trauma, poverty, poor health, or limited access to education. For these individuals, simply providing an income without additional support may not be enough to enable meaningful participation in community life.
CBI therefore combines income security with relational and developmental support. It aims to meet people where they are, helping them gradually build confidence, skills, and connection. Over time, the goal is to shift from extrinsic motivation, receiving income, towards intrinsic motivation, the desire to contribute because one feels capable, valued, and connected.
Mental Wealth Over Material Wealth
One of the most striking ideas discussed in the episode is the notion of “mental wealth”. In growth-oriented economies, success is commonly measured through income, assets, and consumption. Yet this narrow focus often coincides with rising anxiety, loneliness, and dissatisfaction.
Mental wealth, by contrast, refers to the internal and relational capacities that enable people to flourish: a sense of identity not dependent on consumption, the ability to cooperate with others, emotional resilience, and trust in one’s community. Robin argues that an economy oriented towards mental wealth would look very different from the one we inhabit today. It would value care, learning, and social contribution as central economic activities, rather than treating them as invisible or secondary.
This reframing challenges deeply ingrained assumptions. It suggests that prosperity is not primarily about having more, but about being able to live securely, meaningfully, and in relationship with others and the natural world.
Inner Transformation and Cultural Change
A recurring theme throughout the conversation is the link between inner transformation and systemic change. Robin draws on insights from psychosocial research and adult development to argue that cultural transformation cannot occur without changes in how people understand themselves and their place in the world.
Contemporary consumer cultures often encourage individualism, comparison, and status-seeking. These dynamics can undermine cooperation and reinforce patterns of overconsumption. Addressing sustainability, therefore, requires creating conditions that support emotional development, trust-building, and collective identity.
Community Based Income is presented as one lever among many that could help catalyse this shift. By reducing financial stress and recognising socially valuable forms of work, CBI creates space for people to engage in learning, reflection, and community life. In doing so, it supports the inner changes needed for broader cultural evolution.
Change from the Ground Up and the Top Down
The pathway Robin describes is neither purely grassroots nor purely institutional. While much of the work begins at the local level, through councils and community initiatives, she emphasises the importance of combining bottom-up experimentation with top-down policy support. Local successes can build momentum, demonstrate feasibility, and generate demand for wider structural change.
This dual approach acknowledges both the limits of isolated community action and the inertia of large systems. It also reflects a pragmatic understanding that lasting transformation requires alignment between lived experience and formal institutions.
Imagining a Different Economy
The conversation ultimately returns to trust. Trust as something that is built through shared action, deep listening, and reliability. Trust not as an abstract value, but as a lived practice that emerges when people work together and honour commitments. In this sense, trust becomes a form of social infrastructure, enabling cooperation and reducing the need for coercive systems of control.
The ideas explored in this episode do not offer quick fixes. Instead, they invite a slower, deeper reconsideration of what economies are for, and how they shape our relationships with each other and the Earth. Community Based Income is not presented as a silver bullet, but as part of a broader effort to align economic structures with human and ecological wellbeing.
As pressures from climate change, inequality, and social fragmentation intensify, such questions are becoming increasingly difficult to avoid. The challenge, as Robin’s work suggests, is not only to imagine alternatives, but to patiently build the conditions that allow them to take root.
