Full employment is the most urgent task for social democrats | Emma Dawson

Any coherent response to the rise of populism must place the creation of real, sustainable jobs at its heart

" Next left, part one - Culture shock: politics upended in era of identity
" Part two - Bold change comes when we energise hope

As much as we like to think that Australia, with its system of compulsory preferential voting, is protected from the kind of "populist" uprising that has unleashed the Brexit mess and installed Donald Trump in the White House, the result of the last federal election indicates otherwise. Just as in the UK and the United States, Australia has experienced the bewildering phenomenon of people across society voting against their own economic interests.

The urgent task of social democrats the world over is to understand why, and to develop a coherent response - a task we have been skirting around for at least decade, since the limits of supply-side economics, or "neoliberalism", became plainly evident during the global financial crisis.