Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action

$40,000 | November 2021

What do BSCA do?

As bushfire-impacted people, BSCA use their lived experience to highlight the links between climate change and increasingly dangerous bushfires to demand an urgent and just transition to renewable energy.

Why is this work important?

The upcoming federal election offers significant opportunities to apply pressure to federal politicians on urgent climate action, particularly as the lead up is likely to occur during summer and overlap anniversaries of many recent catastrophic bushfires.

With the release of the Royal Commission into the 2019/2020 fires Australia was provided with a clear explanation of the increased risks rural communities now face. BSCA members based in regional and marginal seats are in a unique position to be able to elevate these risks and climate change to a top priority with politicians and voters making the case that governments must recognise this risk and act accordingly, or be in breach of their moral, ethical and mandated obligations to Australians.

BSCA’s recent win in the New South Wales Land and Environment Court has significantly elevated our public profile. Consequently, their lived-experience voices and successful litigation have raised political interest in BSCA and respect for the effectiveness of their campaigning to date.

How is Groundswell supporting this work?

Approaching the federal election, BSCA will execute a targeted campaign across four key fire-affected federal electorates educating voters, candidates and MPs on the escalating bushfire and other extreme climate threats and advocating for a faster transition to clean, renewable energy.

Project goal: make stronger climate action a top-three issue in the federal electorates of Casey, Macquarie, Eden-Monaro and Gilmore by illustrating the immediacy of the climate crisis through survivors’ stories. Our campaign will connect with fire-affected people and politicians in rural and regional areas.

Project strategy: the four seats have the potential to shift policy/change election outcomes because of their influence and we are well placed to work in those seats because they are fire affected and we have core members in each seat. (more info below).

We will recruit three to four Community Organisers (COs) to lead campaigns appropriate to each electorate. The COs will recruit, train and resource local bushfire survivors and other volunteers, beginning with half day digital/in person workshops focussing on relationship building campaign planning. We will utilise climate fact resources from the Climate Council, climate communication resources from the work of Rebecca Huntley and George Marshall, and candidate and electorate intelligence from Premier State.

COs and volunteers will request meetings with relevant MPs and candidates and also invite them and communities to town-hall meetings to discuss emissions reduction commitments and targets, and renewable energy.

BSCA will develop digital content tailored to each electorate with assistance from Climate Media Centre and Environmental Leadership Australia. Distribution will be through BSCA’s media team, aligned community organisations, and other groups’ social media networks.