Nic Seton on the political power of parents

As a parent of two kids with a background in environmental campaigning, Nic Seton knows that while parents are a powerful constituency for progress on climate, they’re usually so flat out managing everything at home and work there’s little time for anything else. In 2021 he became the CEO of Australian Parents for Climate Action, an organisation whose goal is to organise and support parents' push for stronger climate policies at both a local and national level. Founded in 2019 by six mums living around Australia, their membership base now includes 17, 000 parents who together are proving to be an unstoppable force for climate action.

Nic Seton (Gadigal Country) in conversation with Emma-Kate Wilson (Gumbaynggirr Country)

Nic Seton, CEO Parents for Climate Action. Photo: Olivia Parsonson

What climate problems are Australian Parents for Climate Action looking to address?

Our children face an uncertain climate future and in Australia progress on climate solutions has been stymied by a lack of political leadership on ambitious, evidence-based solutions in line with leading scientific reports. We need to create enough public pressure to outweigh this so that climate is a priority issue, and politicians lead more ambitious climate action to retain their voters and supporters.

In under four years, Australian Parents for Climate Action has grown and include over 17,000 supporters demanding greater ambition on climate from all sides of politics. We exist to increase the political will for climate action by engaging and empowering millions of parents across Australia to advocate for climate action within their communities, to the media, and to politicians.

For example, in 2022 AP4CA successfully lobbied the NSW government to commit to open all 2,200 state schools to solar and battery installation proposals — the largest tendering of sites and rooftop capacity in Australia’s history, with Education Minister Sarah Mitchell calling the project a “no-brainer”.

Australian Parents for Climate Action is a grassroots organisation focusing on the parent community— tell me more about this community?

Parents are innately motivated to support issues in their children’s interest. However, currently only a quarter of parents in Australia are engaged in supporting climate action. A further quarter are concerned about climate change, but not active on the issue. Engaging this huge number of parents can shift the balance towards greater public support for climate action.

Take 35-55 year-old working women. They represent 80% of our supporter base and have a strong influence on elections, as we saw in 2022. But they, like all parents, face challenges like limited time to engage, competing priorities, and a lack of support to take political action while managing all of their existing responsibilities.

Which is where Australian Parents for Climate Action comes in. We specialise in activating disengaged and disenfranchised parents by helping them overcome these barriers to action. And by growing the number of connected and engaged parents in strategic locations, we can build targeted pressure on elected representatives in state and federal parliaments.

How has Groundswell's support helped your work?

Groundswell has been a critical partner for Australian Parents for Climate Action, with grant funding enabling us to train over 100 parent spokespeople to become effective advocates in key electorates ahead of the federal election. We achieved 206 media hits in the months before the election (18% in focus electorate media outlets) featuring parents from a diversity of backgrounds, all speaking from the heart on their support for climate action. We built strong, constructive relationships with all major party candidates in key electorates through our community events and briefings. In the end, there were huge swings towards climate positive candidates in all focus electorates, well above the national average.

Why do you do what you do? What gives you hope?

Just like any parent, I do what I do because I love my kids. I want what’s best for them and I am filled with hope every time I see another parent taking action, getting their voice in the media, getting through to a politician, or engaging their community. I’ve never known such an engaged community, united by love. And we’re only just getting started.

arielle gambleMarch 22, 2023