It was a sobering introduction that set the tone for the discussions that followed at this year’s Emerging Issues forum, “No you’re not crazy, it is as bad as it seems out there… but there is a lot of hope and opportunity in the political landscape right now”.
The Western Australian Council of Social Service’s annual Emerging Issues forum, held on the afternoon of April 23, featured an impressive line-up of guest speakers that took listeners on an emotional rollercoaster ride as themes of extremism, social exclusivism and the rise of disinformation were unearthed as the major local, national and global hurdles facing the community services sector in our collective path forward.
“What we’re seeing today is a capacity for shared belonging that is under huge strain,” said Professor Michele Grossman, Director of the Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies, on the back of the notion that social belonging is a fundamental human need.
She warned that on the other side of the coin of social cohesion – fostering increased connection, understanding and solidarity between people from different backgrounds and faiths – was its ‘exclusivism’ opposite which has become rife in our nation.
“It is now mainstreaming and spiralling in Australia,” she said.
“The loss of The Voice Referendum, the rise of One Nation and the extreme right, coupled with antisemitism, are all signs of the trend of social exclusivism, and we are seeing the fraying of social cohesion for individuals and groups across media, politics, education and the economy and labour markets.
“We like to tell ourselves a story of cohesion and resilience, but sometimes the facts don’t back that perception up.”
Professor Megan Davis, a renowned constitutional lawyer and expert on Indigenous rights and democratic design, used the failed Voice Referendum as the basis for her analysis on how disinformation has seeped into our society.
“The speed at which Australia – including the Prime Minister – wanted to move on from that result… it was a campaign that was severely hampered by acute disinformation being played out across media and social media,” she said.
“There’s been very little proper analysis about what went wrong, and now it is very rarely mentioned at all.
“Indigenous issues, in particularly the referendum, is missing from public discourse right now, and it’s not lost on First Nations People the absence of discussion around what happened, and how quickly the caravan moved on.”
Professor Davis said she disagreed that a truth-telling process was a way forward through the problems we’re now facing, which includes a fragmentation of indigenous policy that is partly being driven by the Closing the Gap policy framework.
“It was a problematic framework pre-Voice Referendum and pre-Uluru Statement from the Heart that led to the decision-making around the Voice,” she said.
“Closing the Gap is a problem for many [First Nations People], and it’s now pretty much all the Federal Government does in Indigenous policy.
“We can see the framework doesn’t work, but people are too scared to say something for fear of losing their funding.”
Rounding out the discussion, Australian Institute Chief Political Analyst Amy Remeikis offered some insights into the pressures shaping Australia’s democratic system and where it looks to be heading, in the wake of the recent rise in the One Nation party’s popularity.
“When people start talking about the fact that we might start seeing more of a fractured – which means we’re going to start seeing less of this two-party system – a Westminster democracy is absolutely capable of handling a multi-party system; it always has been,” she said.
“While people often say you need a strong opposition in order to have a strong democracy, I disagree. I think in order to have a strong democracy, you need to have a strong parliament; it doesn’t necessarily rely on an opposition being one party, rather it relies on strong democratic representation in the parliament.
“We’re seeing that trend emerge where you’re starting to see more independents and minor parties and it’s something to keep an eye on, because you’re also going to see at the same time a lot of chaos and confusion if you don’t stick to the major parties.”
Ms Remeikis also touched on a reforming of the global order in the wake of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu’s wars in Gaza and Iran, which is also starting to show a change in diplomatic lines in Australia.
“Because Australia currently needs fuel and other resources which are now coming from the ‘global south’, our diplomatic lines are starting to reorder themselves,” she said.
“Internationally, you can also take heart from the clear signal of overall Australian’s rejection of Trump and Netanyahu’s violent and lawless view of the world – that is being shown in Australia across multiple polls, and it was a pretty big factor in the last federal election as well. And it’s only getting stronger.
“It also points to the fact that Australia actually has a lot of power and agency in order to act on the world stage, certainly more than it currently is.”
In a landscape increasingly defined by fragmentation and fatigue, the Emerging Issues forum served as a timely call to resist disengagement. The conversations underscored that democracy, social cohesion and shared belonging are not fixed states, but ongoing projects – shaped by policy choices, public narratives and collective will.
While the pressures facing Australia are real and intensifying, the forum closed with a clear message: the path forward depends not on retreat, but on a renewed commitment to participation, accountability and inclusive decision‑making.