Getting to net-zero by changing the story on gas
350 Australia and the Climate Council are working to take the social and political licence away from the fossil fuel industry and build a broad movement of people and communities opposed to gas extraction. Together they are helping create the conditions that make it deeply unattractive for politicians and financiers to support opening up new gas fields.
Issue
In 2020, the Australian Government threw its support behind a massive expansion of the Australian gas industry, and has since announced $1.5 billion in subsidies. There is an urgent need to prevent these large new gas fields being developed, and ensure we move to renewable energy solutions instead.
Response
350 Australia and the Climate Media Centre (Climate Council) are working together to shift the narrative on gas, which is essential for building the political, financial, and community momentum to end gas expansion and build climate solutions instead. These groups bring together expertise in messaging and research, and shift power from the fossil fuel lobby to local communities.
Grants
- 2022 Large Grants round: $100,000
Mapping laws and policies that have impacted the lives of First Nations people since 1788
Towards Truth is a collaboration between the Indigenous Law Centre and the Justice and Equity Centre identifying, analysing and cataloguing original government documents, scholarly materials, and commentary, to provide an accessible website that will support First Nations’ community truth-telling practices.
Issue
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples came together in 2017 to make the ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart’. Here is an excerpt: “Proportionally, we are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are not an innately criminal people. Our children are aliened from their families at unprecedented rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them. And our youth languish in detention in obscene numbers. They should be our hope for the future. These dimensions of our crisis tell plainly the structural nature of our problem. This is the torment of our powerlessness.”
Response
The Uluru Statement seeks constitutional reforms so Indigenous people can take their rightful place in their own country. The Statement calls for the establishment of a First Nations’ Voice enshrined in the Constitution. Truth-telling about our joint history supports the Makarrata Commission, which is a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations.
Indigenous Law Centre, UNSW and the Justice and Equity Centre are working together on the ‘Towards Truth’ project to provide practical, foundational support for the truth-telling process. They will systematically examine law and policy that have impacted First Nations people since 1788; no one has ever done this before.
Grants
- 2022 Large Grants round: $100,000
Reducing undue corporate influence and protecting the right of charities to speak up
The #OurDemocracy campaign is a nationwide movement of people and organisations who want a healthy Australian democracy which works for us, not just for the powerful few.
The Stronger Charities Alliance was formed in 2017 in response to a number of bills which would have silenced charities on issues of national importance. The vision of the alliance is of a thriving not-for-profit sector, where charities are empowered to advocate for lasting change in pursuit of their charitable purposes.
#OurDemocracy: Issue + Response
With our climate at crisis point and the global pandemic increasing the gap between rich and poor, we need a strong democracy more than ever. We need a democracy that can deliver the outcomes that will protect people, the planet and future generations.
Politicians have little incentive to strengthen weak lobbying and political donation rules and the lack of a federal anti-corruption watchdog means powerful industries wield disproportionate influence in our democracy – they are getting outcomes that put their profits ahead of the wellbeing of everyone else.
The #OurDemocracy campaign was developed by three organisations – the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) and the Australian Democracy Network (ADN), together with the input of over 30 more. These core organisations continue to develop the solutions and work on the campaign, but just as our democracy belongs to all Australians, the #OurDemocracy campaign is a movement of people and organisations passionate about making our democracy fairer for all.
The Framework for a Fair Democracy has been endorsed by organisations that work right across the spectrum of important issues–from environmental organisations, human rights advocates, health groups to churches– with each taking action to see it become law.
Stronger Charities Alliance: Issue + Response
Charities and community groups make an enormous contribution to the public good whether through running a homeless shelter, tackling family violence, or protecting the environment. Yet in recent years we have seen powerful actors make repeated attacks on the charity sector’s ability to speak up on such issues. Through the Hands Off Our Charities Alliance, ADN and HRLC work with the charities sector to resist attacks on our ability to advocate and to promote positive reform.
The HRLC enhances the capacity of civil society to effectively and collectively respond to new threats with expert legal analysis and advice. For example, in 2021 in response to new regulations which could have seen charities deregistered for supporting protest actions, the HRLC obtained advice from senior counsel on the regulations as soon as they were made public, published an explainer and gave online briefings to help organisations understand how the new rules would impact their work, drafted the HOOC joint submission to government opposing the rules, and helped lead on overall strategy to make sure the regulations were ultimately scrapped.
Uniting Australians to support the LGBTIQ+ community
Equality Australia (EA) exists to improve the wellbeing and circumstances of LGBTIQ+ people in Australia and their families. More specifically, EA works to reduce the stigma and discrimination LGBTIQ+ people face, and to advance and promote equality and inclusion.
Marriage equality
ISSUE
In August 2017, the Federal Government announced the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey – a national survey designed to gauge support for legalising same-sex marriage in Australia.
RESPONSE
The Equality Campaign quickly emerged as a broad coalition of Australians working to secure a Yes vote. The Human Rights Law Centre, where Equality Australia’s Founding CEO Anna Brown was working at the time, was central in ensuring the passage of legislation to deliver marriage equality. Equality Australia was born out of this work.
Religious Discrimination Bill
ISSUE
The proposed Religious Discrimination Bill was supposed to prohibit discrimination on the basis of religious belief or activity (including having no religious belief or refusing to engage in religious activity) in certain areas of public life, such as employment, education and the provision of goods and services.
But the Bill that was drafted threatened to undermine inclusive workplaces, schools and access to services like healthcare without judgement. Laws which should protect religious people from discrimination would have been used to hand a licence to discriminate against LGBTIQ+ people, women, people with disability, and others.
RESPONSE
In 2019, Equality Australia began working in close partnership with businesses, community organisations, and individual advocates to make sure that laws in the name of religion protect people of faith without winding back protections from discrimination for LGBTIQ+ people, women, and people with disability.
Progress update
UPDATED MARCH 2022
- Marriage equality achieved
- Religious Discrimination Bill shelved indefinitely
What the Impact Fund’s support means
“It is really wonderful to have funders like the Impact Fund community who understand that to protect equality we need the freedom to respond swiftly to the political landscape.” – Anna Brown, CEO, Equality Australia
Read case study in Making Change Together: Five years of the Impact Fund
Grants
- 2017 Agile Grant: $25,000 for YES campaign
- 2018 Agile Grant: $15,000 for All Schools, Same Rules campaign
- 2021 Agile Grant: $37,000 for Freedom for Discrimination campaign (Religious Discrimination Bill)