An audience of more than 60 people, who attended the Society’s 1320th Ordinary General Meeting held in the Metcalfe Theatre of the State Library of NSW on 17 April 2024, enjoyed an outstanding conversation and a lively discussion on “Putting the ‘Civil’ Back in Civil Society” by Professor Kristy Muir, CEO of the Paul Ramsay Foundation, and Emeritus Professor Peter Shergold AC FRSN, Vice-President of the Royal Society of New South Wales.

In their conversation, Professor Muir and Shergold addressed the fragility of democratic governance, under the threat from authoritarianism, xenophobia and populism — with trust in political leaders wavering, thanks to the rise of AI and the increasingly powerful role of social media as a primary news source. In Australia, as elsewhere, with public discourse seemingly riven by increasing social divisiveness and political discord, they sought answers to the questions of what’s going wrong, who or what is to blame, and what can be done to restore a truly civil society.

The presentation is now available on the Society’s YouTube channel. Some images from the occasion are available at this link for viewing and downloading.