"We live in an age which at its best is one of individual empowerment and at its worst is one of stress, anxiety and confusion," Ms Gillard said.

While a primary school child using a computer at school had more information available than at any other time in human history, the reality for too many people was actually one of feeling adrift in a sea of information and overwhelmed by too much change, she said.

"The lived reality is one of feeling that they have lost control of their own lives.

"Indeed, I believe this clash of the choices of modernity with our need for security in life is one of the reasons that there is a sense of anxiety in the community."

Many commentators have predicted that social democracy has passed its use-by date and that notions of collective action, solidarity and unionism are incompatible with today's individualism, Ms Gillard said.