Is the promise of Australia under threat?

For decades, Australia has rested on the implicit promise that effort would be rewarded, opportunity broadly shared, and institutions would act fairly. This promise has underpinned not only economic prosperity, but democratic stability. A closed-door roundtable convened by UTS last month asked whether that promise is now beginning to fray, and what role business must play if it is to be restored.

Bringing together senior leaders from business, government and civil society under Chatham House rules, the discussion focused on a question that is becoming harder to ignore: what happens when the economic and social systems that support democratic stability stop delivering fair and credible outcomes?

Participants pointed to mounting pressures on the conditions that have historically sustained Australia’s relative stability, such as shared prosperity, social mobility and institutional trust. Economic inequality is widening. Younger generations face growing barriers to secure work and affordable housing. Left unaddressed, these trends risk weakening both economic resilience and democratic legitimacy.

Chaired by Professor Carl Rhodes, former Dean of UTS Business School and author of Stinking Rich: The Four Myths of the Good Billionaire, and Industry Professor John Lydon, the roundtable returned repeatedly to the broader concern of whether Australia’s social contract is becoming harder to sustain at a time of technological disruption, capital concentration and global uncertainty.

Participants identified the growing paradox that trust is increasingly fragile, yet leadership is becoming harder to exercise. Short‑term incentives, heightened scrutiny and fragmented policy settings make it difficult for organisations to engage meaningfully with long‑horizon, cross‑sector problems, even as failure to do so risks entrenching inequality and weakening democratic participation.

UTS is meeting this challenge head on, with the development of The Ultimo Institute (working title). The Institute is designed to strengthen democratic resilience by turning research, cross‑sector debate and policy insight into practical action. The Institute is being shaped by extensive consultation across different parts of society, with the business leaders’ roundtable just one such contribution.

Professor Rhodes, who is leading the development of the Institute, said the discussion highlighted a critical gap.

The Ultimo Institute will move beyond diagnosis to action, serving as a hub for evidence-based research, cross‑sector debate, policy experimentation and collaborative problem‑solving. A distinctive feature of its design is a strong intergenerational focus, ensuring that younger Australians are actively involved in shaping responses to challenges that will define their future.

Rose Herceg, Australia and New Zealand CEO of WPP, one of the world's largest marketing services companies, spoke at the roundtable about centring young people in these conversations: 

“There is a unique role for universities in this kind of work. They are one of the few institutions that can bring together different parts of society while also being deeply connected to young Australians who are our future leaders.

If we want the next generation to step into leadership and inherit a country that is thriving, they need to be part of engaging with these challenges now, not inheriting them later. Creating a platform that enables that kind of cross-sector and intergenerational dialogue is an important and timely step.”

The roundtable marks an early step in what UTS sees as a broader effort to strengthen alignment between economic power, democratic participation and social trust. As pressures on Australia’s economic and political systems intensify, the question is no longer whether such conversations are necessary, but whether they can translate into meaningful, coordinated action while there is still time to act before the pressures on trust and opportunity become entrenched.