Conference Summary
The 2025 National Social Cohesion and Inclusion Conference, Coming Together Around Shared Aspirations, was the fifth in a series hosted by the Australian Baha'i Community since 2019 – bringing together those thinking deeply about Australia's progress to deliberate, reflect on experience, share ideas, and explore the settings, methods and approaches that foster greater social cohesion and inclusion.
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Over one hundred participants from government, civil society, academia, media, the arts, faith organisations, and industry gathered from across the country to deliberate on the conference themes. The conference opened with remarks from Shephalie Williams (Director, Office of External Affairs, Australian Bahá'í Community), who framed the conference as part of an ongoing process of collective learning and a contribution to the national conversation on social cohesion. Craig Madden (Gadigal/Bundjulang man, Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council), delivered the Welcome to Country, encouraging participants, as his father once encouraged him, to center kindness and goodness in one’s endeavours. Melanie Mackenzie (Deputy Head, Department of Home Affairs' Office of Social Cohesion), discussed government efforts to make social cohesion more visible, valued, and embedded in decision-making at every level. Together, these opening remarks laid out a foundation for speakers, panellists, and participants to deepen their collective understanding and co-create pathways forward.
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The conference sessions that followed included presentations, panels and small group discussions on conference themes:
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Inclusive dialogue;
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First Nations perspectives on social cohesion;
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Communities as protagonists;
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Neighbourhood settings as areas for learning and impact.
Session 1: Keynote Address & Inclusive Dialogue
Aleem Ali, CEO of Welcoming Australia, delivered the keynote address, framing thoughts, ideas and questions to inform the conferences deliberations. He invited participants to reconsider the many dichotomies and assumptions that underpin the framework through which modes of thinking, policy and practice unfold. The need to describe a new collective multicultural story of Australia that includes all of us, not just some, the need to move away from the binaries of ‘us and them,’ the replacement of the transactional with the relational were just some of the ideas discussed. He emphasized the importance of returning to foundational principles and the need to focus on learning about their consistent application. He posed questions to reframe the possibilities for transformation that can occur:
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“We are diverse. We live in a multicultural society. Indeed, some communities are more multicultural than others. Yet, this simple truth remains. We are collectively multicultural...The first Minister for Multicultural Affairs to be appointed to cabinet, the Hon Dr Anne Aly MP, stated: ‘Multiculturalism is not just about or for a section of our society, each and every one of us belongs to an Australia that has been enriched by … 65,000 years of First Nations culture and the successive stories, traditions and histories of those who have come across the seas...’ And herein lies an opportunity to change how we describe who we are.”
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Following Aleem’s presentation, participants reflected on the values, norms, and approaches that strengthen inclusion, belonging, and social harmony in their table groups. They deliberated on the progress made in recent years to promote and strengthen social cohesion in the country, as well as the obstacles that remain, and the lessons learned along the way. Participants were encouraged to consider the role of inclusive dialogue in facilitating shared understanding amongst diverse perspectives and outline key characteristics of such dialogue. Table groups were also guided to contemplate these questions within the context of unlocking the capacity of every individual to contribute to constructive and lasting social change.
Session 2: First Nations Perspectives on Social Cohesion
The second session brought to the forefront First Nations perspectives on social cohesion with an online in-conversation session between Councillor Yvonne Weldon AM, City of Sydney, and Dr. Penny Taylor. Guided by the principles of connection and community, their conversation underscored the importance of centering kindness and cultivating a culture of generosity to honor our common humanity:
​“We have so much opportunity to learn from those that have had practices and traditions to be handed down...There’s some pretty powerful lessons there if you embed more of that into everyday practices. Hopefully as we move forward, we take more of it with us and... walk that path together.”
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Building on the first session, table groups further explored ways to meaningfully draw on diverse knowledge systems. Specifically, participants reflected on how to meaningfully integrate First Nations perspectives in a manner that informs and shapes our collective understanding. They discussed how these contributions can be embedded into the very fabric of our decision making at the local and national levels, so as to move beyond only acknowledgements and celebrations.
Session 3: Community as Protagonists
Session 3 began with a presentation from Türkan Aksoy, NSW Coordinator for Welcoming Cities, where she outlined ways communities were fostering cohesion through the practice of storytelling, and touched on community engagement more broadly. Türkan was then joined by Daniel Barakate, Director of Commissioning and Planning for the NSW Department of Communities and Justice, and Samim Loftus, NSW/ACT Training Institute Board Member, who outlined the characteristics of a healthy, resilient community: a sense of belonging, shared purpose, and collaboration across difference. The experiences that were shared showed that change is more likely to occur when people work together at the local level. When communities draw on individual and collective skills, strengthen bonds within and between families across generations, and create spaces for consensus-building dialogue, they inspire hope, cultivate connections, and plant the seeds for their communities to prosper.
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With these anecdotes in mind, participants returned to their table groups to explore the theme of community as protagonists. They began by examining current conceptions of ‘community’ in Australia and how this concept has evolved or changed over time. They considered what role communities play in fostering social cohesion in the country by reflecting on the capacities and resources that already exist within communities, as well as those that are needed. Table groups were invited to reimagine the dynamic between institutions and communities as more collaborative and less transactional, recognising that institutions can strengthen social cohesion by supporting and facilitating the initiatives that communities themselves collectively develop, plan, lead and sustain.
Session 4: Neighbourhood Settings as Areas for Learning and Impact
The final session began with a presentation by Anthea Hancocks, CEO of the Scanlon Foundation Research Institute, who reviewed the Institute’s 2025 Mapping Social Cohesion report. Among the many insights regarding social cohesion in Australia, the report revealed that high neighbourhood cohesion has significant impact on happiness, and these dynamics help instill a stronger sense of belonging, hope and optimism about the future. Anthea was joined by Rosemary Kariuki OAM, 2021 Australian Local Hero, Mehraban Farahmand, Coordinator for the Adasiyyih Development Initiative, and May Sabet, Program Coordinator at the Hampton Park Community Learning Centre. They discussed the simple but transformative ways in which social cohesion was being fostered meaningfully in neighbourhoods across the country. Their experiences highlighted the immense potential for transformation that lies latent within neighbourhoods, where diverse individuals and informal groups (such as youth, women and families) have the capacity and opportunity to come together and contribute to the well-being of the areas in which they live.
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In the final table group session, participants considered social cohesion at the neighbourhood level and discussed how it can be an important source of belonging, connection and resilience and how it can strengthen the social, emotional, and practical bonds among diverse groups of people. With both quantitative and qualitative insights to refer to, they examined the processes and endeavors that bring people together and foster a greater sense of unity in the neighbourhood as well as what helps sustain and strengthen such efforts.
