Join the Blue Mountains Greens in conversation with Tim Hollo, Executive Director of the Green Institute and former Greens candidate, on his new book: Living Democracy.

"This is what it is to live democracy.

The way people’s faces light up when sharing home-grown, home-cooked food. The way we spark together when marching and chanting as part of a protest crowd. The bone-weary contentment at the end of a day with friends planting trees or tending a garden. The way we glow when having a great conversation, building off each other’s ideas, finding solutions we can all be satisfied with. The energy buzzing in a participatory planning session, people leaping out of their seats with excitement to scrawl ideas on a sheet of paper, nodding vigorously, eyes shining. The inexpressible joy and relief in the voice of an elderly neighbour calling to thank you for dropping a message in their letterbox offering support during pandemic lockdown.

This is what it is to be a member of society, one special part of an unimaginably complex whole, listening to, respecting, and coexisting with all that surrounds us, building trust and cohesion. This is what we humans do.
But, starkly, it’s not how our systems of government and economics work today.

Why not? How did our systems come to stray so far from this ecological approach we instinctively love? And how can we work together to turn things around? To recreate systems that are based on our best instincts rather than our worst?"

These are the questions Tim's book explore, and they're questions that we, as a party and as a movement, have to discuss, deeply and urgently. Please join us.

Our panel will include: Blue Mountains City Council Greens Councillors Brent Hoare and Sarah Redshaw, Dr Jenna Condie, local greens community activist (including co-lead of Australian Parents for Climate Action - Blue Mountains) and Hareem Abassi, climate activist who works for Australian Youth Climate Coalition.

The Alexandra Hotel has disability parking, access ramps and wheelchair accessible bathrooms. If you have any accessibility requirements please be in touch with Joel MacKay at joel.mv.mackay@gmail.com.

If you are under 18, your parent or guardian will need to contact the event organiser directly to let them know there will be someone under 18 attending.