Goldstein Candidates Forum- Climate Change Conference

Thursday 28th April 7:30pm

Last night I attended the Climate Change Conference at Brighton Town Hall.

As I arrived, I walked from the dark of Wilson Street into bright lights and a sea of colour-blue, red, teal, green and purple- all representing different parties in Goldstein, and lots of voices calling out, handing me leaflets for the candidates.

We showed our tickets at the door and Kylie McIntosh, the Vice president of Bayside Climate Crisis Action Group (BCCAG), introduced herself and very kindly presented me with a Press Pass and I found a seat in the Press Section at the front.

The Brighton Town Hall is huge with high ceilings, creamy walls and wooden floorboards. The energy in the room was electric. My friend's Dad, Julian, a passionate Zoe Daniel supporter, came over to say hi. There was a feeling that Goldstein had come out, united for climate change, and that something amazing was going to happen. We had arrived 45 minutes early and the room was already more than half full. This was the view looking backwards from my seat:

The candidates started to arrive on the stage. Martyn Abott arrived first and read through his notes, then Tim, Alana and Zoe. The moderator Craig Francis, from Southern FM, chatted to them as they took their seats:

Kylie McIntosh, (BCCAG) introduced the conference and then Lily and Josie, two young people from the group School Strike for Climate, spoke about the importance of Climate Change to young people:

The candidates all introduced themselves and I'd like to say a big thank you to Tim, who gave me a special mention:

Questions were then taken from both floors, upstairs and downstairs, and Craig read out questions that had been submitted in advance. The queue for questions was from the front of the room to the back of the room, downstairs alone! Many people didn't get to ask their questions, due to the sheer number, but most candidates stayed behind in the foyer afterwards to answer further questions. This was a photo of some of the queue from my seat:

The debate was energetic, respectful and exciting.

My takeaway was:

Alana: If you want climate change fast and fierce, Alana is for you. She promises to go further and faster that any of the other parties.

Martyn: There was a lot of debate between Tim and Martyn about Liberal vs. Labor. Martyn debated well, had lots of facts and figures and was quite funny too.

Zoe: Zoe was inspiring, strong, spoke well and had good policies.

Tim: Tim came across as the underdog as he received lots of heckles from the crowd. In spite of that, he debated strongly and got across his points very well. He came across as the most experienced politician.

I had a great evening, thank you to BCCAG for allowing me to report on this, and to all the candidates for making the time to answer the questions.

So Goldstein, it's over to you.....

Who will you vote for?