Outlining trends threatening Australia’s liberal democracy, the paper highlights declining social cohesion, a weakening sense of national identity and a sharp rise in antisemitism. It raises questions about the future of Australian citizenship, calling for a renewed commitment to civic education, community engagement and political leadership to address the crisis of civic virtue.

According to this report, Australian students continue to value the importance of learning about our country’s history and civic institutions. Despite this, the report shows that students’ knowledge and understanding of Australia’s democracy, our political system and civic processes has fallen.

The findings of this inquiry into civics education and participation in Australia shows low media literacy and inconsistent implementation is reducing engagement. The report calls for a national media literacy strategy, and recommends a four-part approach to strengthening and standardising civics education.

This toolkit summarises the five main challenges encountered in meaningful political participation and media literacy by Chinese and South Asian origin research participants resident in Australia for at least 2 years. It also presents evidence-based recommendations to address these challenges for a range of stakeholders.

Australian students’ decline in academic achievement has eroded public confidence, according to this paper, which positions debating skills as a possible solution. The paper provides examples from centuries of writing, arguing that debating can cement knowledge across subject areas, enhance language proficiency and encourage thoughtful, articulate and confident civic engagement.