On 15-17 July I convened ‘The Advancing Community Cohesion – Towards a National Compact Conference’ (ACCC) at University of Western Sydney (UWS) Parramatta Campus.

For the ACCC program see: Conference booklet

ACCC was a resounding success.   The Governor General opened the Conference on 15 July.  The following two days of the conference comprised of 19 sessions with 79 speakers, including Prof.  Peter Shergold AC, Chancellor of UWS, Senator The Hon. Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social Services, The Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG, Retired Justice of the High Court of Australia, H.E. Dr Hassan El-Laithy, Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Dr Tim Soutphommasane, Race Discrimination Commissioner, Tim Wilson, Human Rights Commissioner,  numerous  senior government officials,  scholars from throughout Australia and community representatives, including those from FECCA and Muslim groups.  Indeed, the 350 ACCC participants included all key actors who are at the forefront of community cohesion advancement in the country.

There was an impressive array of media mentions, including ABC TV and current affairs, SKY News, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Some of the highlights are listed below.

• Front page SMH and Age- you can read the story online (PDFs of the print edition in media report)
• ABC PM, Thursday and Friday
• SBS TV
• Radio National interview with Dr Sev Ozdowski
• Rolling television coverage on APAC, SKY News’ live current affairs station
• Social media discussions included retweets of conference content by Tim Wilson and Michael   Ebeid

See photos from conference here