In 2014, Australia’s overall ranking was third, but this year we have dropped to fourth position. Ahead of Australia was Germany in first position, followed by France and then Japan.

The index rates health, education, gender equality, income, safety, employment, infrastructure and environment.

The United States, one of the wealthiest and powerful countries in the world, ranked ninth overall. The report highlighted that a country’s wealth was not associated with social justice: some of the wealthiest countries had high levels of disadvantage and inequity.

This is of considerable concern because standard economic theory suggests that a focus on increasing a country’s wealth will benefit its citizens through improved prosperity across social, environmental and economic domains.

Australia performed poorly on a range of areas, including education. About 40 per cent of Australian Indigenous young people do not finish secondary school compared to 10 per cent of non-Indigenous children.

Australia also performed poorly in measures related to the environment. In this area, Australia came 13th, a little ahead of Russia. Australia has the highest per capita carbon emissions along with the US, Saudi Arabia and Canada.

What does this mean for us here in Armidale? As chief executive of Save the Children, Paul Ronalds said: "Few would argue that a child's life chances should be determined before they are born."

In Armidale, we believe in the rights of all children to have equal opportunities to learn, to grow up healthy and well, and to be happy. We can make sure that in our community all children can access and participate in education, that all children are healthy and that, as a community, we address environmental issues so our children can flourish.