Here in Australia it was marked in a number of ways, including in Wagga Wagga Rotary’s sixth Royce Abbey Peace Oration.

September 21 has been celebrated as the International Day of Peace since 1981 by all countries in the United Nations.

The United Nations has declared it “a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples”.

Apart from the UN, one of the few organisations that celebrates the International Day of Peace is Rotary. Here in Wagga Rotary District 9700 marks the occasion with the Royce Abbey Peace Oration.

Royce Abbey, a past Rotary International president who unveiled the Rotary Peace Symbol on the bank of the Wollundry Lagoon, declaring Wagga the first Rotary Peace City in the world. There are now more than 60 such cities.

Rotary recognises that ‘peace’ is much more than the absence of war, for “With peace of mind, body and spirit there can be peace in our home, in our community and in our world.”

Perhaps Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s announcement of $100 million to combat domestic violence is a small step in the right direction in this regard.

This year the Sixth Royce Abbey was presented by Steve Mark AM, a past president of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board. His paper Community, Belonging and the Rise of the New Tribalism explored the threats to peace in our rapidly changing society.

Sadly, for most people September 21 passes by without a thought of its ‘Peace’ connotation. One way to rectify this is to make 21 September an annual public holiday as the International Day of Peace.

Pie in the sky, you might think? Not necessarily, for Greens NSW MP and Industrial Relations Spokesperson David Shoebridge has made such a call, which the NSW Parliament can easily make it happen.

With the work-life balance deteriorating for many Australian workers, creating an additional public holiday is the very least we can do to address this.

Mr Shoebridge said “It’s been the better part of a century since working people have had a new public holiday, and there is no better reason to take time off to spend with friends and family than for peace.

“With more and more people working longer and longer hours, it’s often only public holidays that give people that break to recharge the batteries and catch up with those closest to them.”

Many will no doubt complain that this would impose a cost on our economy, but a comparison of other countries show that we could certainly afford another day off. NSW has 11 public holidays (only nine with a guaranteed weekday off), Japan has 15 public holidays, Sweden has 15 public holidays, and China has a massive 18 public holidays.

And of course many small businesses, such as those in the hospitality industry, even when paying penalty rates, can profit massively from a public holiday.

NSW recorded its last new public holiday in 1920. Isn’t it about time we added another? 

If the thought of 10 days off is too much, there are certainly one or two public holidays whose justifications are long past their use by dates that we could well get rid of and replace with an International Day of Peace. Let’s do it.