The keynotes and the five panels from 28 July 2026, filmed with SBS as media partner and released here as each recording is ready and approved by its speakers. The program ran as a working day: every panel opened with a framing address and moved to discussion, with participant contributions fed back to the facilitator mid-panel. The Chatham House Rule covered participants in the room; the speakers were on the record.
Coming soonElfa Moraitakis, Chief Executive Officer, SydWest
The framing address that opened the Summit, setting out why SydWest, SSI and SCOA convened 160 leaders for a working day on the conditions that strengthen or weaken social cohesion in Australia.
Coming soonMember for Chifley
The opening keynote. The Summit began with a strong diagnosis of the pressures on social cohesion: racism and discrimination, unequal access to opportunity, declining trust in institutions and divisive public narratives.
Coming soonInterim Chairperson, Victorian Multicultural Commission
The afternoon keynote, between the panels on practical action and public narrative, as the conversation moved from diagnosis towards mechanisms and responsibility.
Coming soonParticipants repeatedly reached for the language of rights, duties and institutional responsibility. In this panel, participant contributions called for some form of legal or rights-based instrument, one of the strongest responses in the discussion. A positive duty on employers to prevent racism emerged as one of the more concrete proposals of the day.
Coming soonAcross the early discussions, participants spoke about racism and discrimination, unequal access to opportunity, declining trust in institutions, divisive public narratives and the difficulty of creating meaningful connection across difference. The question of how to reach people who have disengaged or opted out arose independently across four sessions.
Coming soonAs the day progressed, the conversation shifted from diagnosis to mechanisms: legal and institutional mechanisms, but also place, proximity and relationships, with local government, neighbourhood organisations, workplaces, schools and libraries all given a role. Recognition of overseas skills and qualifications was the most consistently supported specific proposition across the Summit.
Coming soonNarrative was the theme with the greatest volume of discussion. This panel moved beyond a call for better stories and identified structural features of the information environment: the role of algorithms, platform design and commercial incentives in amplifying outrage and division.
Coming soonThe closing discussion produced one of the Summit’s most concrete proposals. Participants proposed that each Roadmap commitment should identify one accountable leader, one lived-experience partner, the resources required, a baseline, a six-month measure and a transparent method for reporting progress. Those six elements are now the Roadmap’s accountability architecture.
