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Local Candidates speak at International Peace Day Celebrations

On Sunday 16th of September, local candidates for the federal Election participated in a "meet the candidates" forum held at Ewingsdale hall as part of International Peace Day celebrations in Byron Shire. The line-up included Giovanni Ebono (Greens) Sue Page (Nationals) and Peter Faulkner(Independent). Each candidate was given 5 minutes to speak. The hall was filled with listeners. Given that it was bright and sunny outside and there were other attractions as well, it suggests a real interest in what is going to happen at the coming election.

Giovanni Ebono was first to speak.

He said," I am here today to talk about peace. I would like you to think about human history. Human civilisation started in what is now called Iraq the cradle of civilisation between the Tigress and Euphrates rivers. This is the place where now, thousands of people are being killed each year."

He continued, "In this place, people started to farm and as a result they began to build cities and specialise their labour. The civilisation we have now, where we have doctors, film-makers and so on started in that ancient place.
When that first agriculture started it was not very efficient, it was easier to pick food from the land than to engage in farming. Some people did not want to farm so they managed to get others to do it for them. So the very beginning of all civilisation came from some people wanting others to do the hard work for them."

"This is where the  first kingdoms came about.  These first cities could not survive without expanding, because they needed to gather food from further away to feed their ever increasing populations of people who where engaged in non-farming activities. As a result, our whole civilisation has been founded on growth for the last 4000 years or so. This growth and expansion came at the expense of their neighbours who were less well armed. This has been the history of humanity."

" And now we come to a federal election in a small country and people ask me what difference can you as a federal politician, make to this whole history? I say to them, we have to make a difference because the world is now full, we have no choice. The Greens are the only party which has the policies which are not based on the engine of infinite growth."

When the floor was made open for questions most were directed at Sue Page concerning  matters such as National party policy and her "Green"  and progressive stance being at odds with National Party  policy.