Doctors for the Environment
$40,000 | April 2022
What do Doctors for the Environment do?
Health is a universal issue that is relevant to all Australians and cuts across social, cultural and political divides and doctors are proven to be strong messengers on climate. The latest DEA campaign raises community awareness of the links between climate change and health, and increases political ambition for progressive climate policy. Doctors use their trusted voices to shift mainstream audiences and to build relationships with electoral candidates in the lead-up to the federal election and beyond.
Why is this work important?
This campaign raises community awareness of the links between climate change and health, and increases political ambition for progressive climate policy. Doctors in five key electorates use their trusted voices to shift mainstream audiences and to build relationships with electoral candidates in the lead-up to the federal election and beyond.
How is Groundswell supporting this work?
With the support of Grundswell funding, DEA’s medical doctor and student members carry out grassroots campaigning in 5 priority Liberal-held electorates: Wentworth (NSW), Curtin (WA), Higgins (Vic), Leichardt (Qld) and Boothby (SA).
Through a range of tactics, both in-person and online, doctors use their influence as trusted messengers to shift Climate Concerned and Cautious audiences (as defined by Climate Compass research) and to build relationships with all electoral candidates in the lead-up to the federal election.
Through building community support and then communicating the strength of community feeling to moderate liberal MPs, this campaign provides MPs with support to promote more ambitious policy within the Liberal party.
Grant update
In the lead up to the election, DEA members educated political leaders, health colleagues and local communities about the health impacts of climate change. DEA partnered with several organisations to deliver events and messaging.
Those involved in this national campaign helped to get thousands of postcards with policy asks signed within their local communities. These were sent to local members of parliament in the five electorates. High visibility signs helped to attract attention and prompted countless conversations with the public about the health impacts of climate change.
DEA held Climate and Health Candidate Forums in each of the five electorates, where political candidates from major parties, the Greens and independents debated about their climate and health policies. These forums were either led by DEA or co-led along with other climate organisations. In Wentworth (Sydney), DEA members placed ‘For Health’s Sake! Climate Action Now’ signs on their electric vehicles to raise awareness.
All work was driven by DEA members’ immense energy and passion for climate and health.
Media:
Throughout April and May we had 58 media hits in 60 days – predominantly in conservative media and all local media was covered. The articles can be found here.
Social media overview:
• A mix of ‘Vox Pop’ style photos and captions from health professionals in different parts of the country.
• Around 700 social media posts tailored to each social platform and related to the campaign in this period.
• Longform articles and op-eds by DEA Members paired with engaging multimedia videos summarising these articles.
• Involved a student DEA instagram page and Facebook page for cross-posting stories.
• Involved 10 independently managed Facebook groups for cross-posting stories.
• At least 200 graphic or social media tiles produced including audio, video and static tiles.
• Each social media post was intentionally tagged with local businesses, local MPS and local political parties of all sides of the political spectrum and local media in the area for maximum engagement on posts.