A Nation Under Strain: NCAM Calls for Leadership as Scanlon Report Finds Australians More Divided

Media Release – 5 November 2026

The National Council of Australian Muslims (NCAM) says the Scanlon Foundation’s 2026 Mapping Social Cohesion report, released today, should be read as a warning. The 20th annual survey of 10,000 adults found that 62 per cent of Australians believe social cohesion is getting worse, and that a record 59 per cent now consider immigration levels too high. Agreement that immigrants make Australia stronger has fallen from 78 per cent in 2022 to 64 per cent.

The report also shows the depth of financial strain. One in five households could not afford medicine or healthcare, and about one in eight could not afford rent or mortgage payments.

“This report is a warning,” NCAM Director Sajida Salman said. “When families are struggling, the easy path is to blame those who look or pray differently. Australia’s leaders must choose the harder and better path: to address real hardship while firmly rejecting racism and Islamophobia, so that every Australian feels they belong.”

NCAM is concerned that economic hardship is being turned into suspicion of migrants and minorities. Last year’s Scanlon report found that 35 per cent of adults held negative attitudes towards Muslims. Muslim Australians, many of them migrants or the children of migrants, are often the first to feel it when public debate turns hostile.

NCAM calls on leaders at every level of government to name and reject anti-Muslim and anti-migrant rhetoric whenever it appears; to address the cost-of-living pressures the report identifies without blaming any community; to fund a National Anti-Racism Data Plan so that hate incidents, including Islamophobia, are properly recorded; and to endorse and fund the National Anti-Racism Framework.

The report’s message is not that Australia has failed. It is that cohesion cannot be taken for granted.

“Australia’s diversity remains one of its greatest strengths,” Ms Salman said. “But belonging has to be protected, and that is a responsibility our leaders cannot leave to chance.”

For media inquiries, please contact: media@ncam.au

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National Council of Australian Muslims (NCAM) acknowledges all First Peoples as the Traditional Custodians throughout the land across Australia, and pay our respects to Elders past and present. We recognise and respect the historical and traditional connection Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have to the land, water, culture and community. We appreciate the importance of the world’s oldest living culture, and support the union of a reconciled Australia. NCAM is committed to ensuring inclusion, equity and equality.