CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS

Ms WATSON-BROWN (Ryan) (09:52): This Saturday just past, my team and I, along with 100 Greens volunteers, put on a huge, free community festival in Mount Coot-tha Botanic Gardens in my electorate of Ryan. We called it Alive in the Sunshine. It featured dozens of amazing community groups, artists, thinkers, entertainers, musicians, campaigners and small businesses.

Close to 5,000 people came across for the five hours of the festival. Some people might ask what a politician is doing putting on a festival. I want to answer that, but first I want to say a few thank yous.

Firstly, thank you to the Mount Coot-tha gardens staff and volunteers. You make this beautiful, iconic and precious part of Brisbane all the more beautiful, iconic and precious. Next, I want to thank Lachy, Robyn, Rachel, Hannah and Berta—the key team who pulled together this whole thing.

You're dedicated, passionate, clever, inventive, resourceful and tenacious. You make me very proud. Next I want to thank every Greens volunteer who dedicated their time.

You're the lifeblood of the movement for change. I wish I could thank every single group or individual who contributed by name, but I'd need an hour-long speech for that. So thank you; you give me hope.

I finally want to thank 8 Ball Aitken, Moon Boots, the Steel Syndicate and all the amazing artists for bringing the great tunes and vibes. Now to answer the question: what is a politician doing putting on a free festival? Don't you have more important things to do?

Well, my answer is no. There's nothing more important. The challenges facing society over the coming years and decades will only be met and will only be overcome by rebuilding the social fabric and breaking with decades of neoliberal individualism, isolation and low expectations.

There's climate change, AI, geopolitical rivalries, war and economic crises. I'm not saying we fix all these things by throwing festivals, but I am saying that, if we don't rebuild a sense of collective life, our children's and grandchildren's lives will be harsher, less joyful and more precarious. Every time a festival closes, every time a public space is privatised, every time housing becomes expensive and inaccessible and every time our collective natural heritage is commercialised or despoiled, it renders us more atomised and more powerless against the forces of those who control our economy for their private profit.

But every time we come together like at Alive in the Sunshine, we gain confidence in ourselves and gain more capacity to build together that better future that we all deserve.