How to vote climate
- ensuring a change in the 2022 Australian elections
For any real action on climate change, the current Liberal government has to go. As a result, it is important to vote the right person into the House of Representatives. To do that, you need to find out what electorate you are in and look up who is running in your electorate. If there is an independent running that supports strong action on climate change (a “teal” independent for example) or a Greens member, putting them first on the ballot would be a vote for climate. Labor’s policy on climate change is a lot stronger than the position taken by the Liberal party, which is why ranking Labor above the Liberals is a vote for climate. While you should come to your own decision on how to vote, I don’t think it hurts to provide this information as a guide on how to vote climate in this up-coming election.
In this blog post, you will find answers to the following questions:
The links and information are focused on voting for the House of Representatives, with more information on the Senate provided in this post: https://sustainablysorted.com/how-to-vote-climate-australian-election-senate-voting/
What electorate am I in?
Find your electorate at: https://electorate.aec.gov.au/
You put your search item in the box under “Search Federal Electorates” and under the “by” box you select what you are searching by (Electorate, Locality or Suburb, or Postcode).
Unfortunately, if your postcode comes under two electorates, you are asked to contact the AEC at 13 23 26 to find out which one you fall under based on your address. That happened to me and I found it easier to fill out their online inquiry form at https://formupload.aec.gov.au/Form?FormId=Question. They responded in 2 – 3 days.
Who is running in my electorate?
I found the easiest way to work out who was running in my electorate was to refer to this Wiki page:
I’m not sure how up-to-date the list is but I’ve been checking on it each week and have noticed someone is updating it whenever new candidates are announced. So someone is paying attention to this and it seems up to date.
Another great resource that was updated closer to the election was ABC’s Vote Compass: https://www.abc.net.au/news/elections/federal/2022/guide/electorates.
This lists all the candidates on the ballot and also provides links to their website, which is very handy.
Who should I vote for?
This blog post is centred around #VoteClimate, so who do you vote for to fulfil that purpose? And what if you have other issues you feel passionately about?
This what you may need to do…
The best way of working out which candidate in your election you should vote for would be to Google each of the candidates in your electorate and read up on the issues they are focused on. Their webpage should give you a good overview – that’s true even for members from the major parties. Worth checking out.
Then choose the one that supports issues that align with your values and make sure you number them first and decide on the order you are going to number the rest (if you don’t know much about how to fill out the voting card for the House of Representatives, go to this blog post: https://sustainablysorted.com/understanding-how-your-vote-counts/).
If you are after further information on the current candidate in your electorate (to get past the marketing fluff) check out this website: https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/
You enter the current member’s name and it then lists the type of bills this candidate has supported in parliament and what they have voted against.
Here is something fun you could do…
If the thought of doing all that bores you to tears, you could have a little fun filling out a quiz through ABC’s VoteCompass – a tool that will allow you to see which major political party your values closely align with: https://votecompass.abc.net.au/
Here are my results – seems like Labour aligns with my values, across the economic and social spectrum.
Here’s what I’m going to do…
For me, climate change is THE thing deciding my vote. Because frankly, it doesn’t matter who is in government, the economy has its way of sorting itself out. And as for other social issues, I have found that candidates that support stronger action on climate change also support the kind of action I’d like to see in other areas.
In the 2022 election, there is a large group of independents that are supporting stronger action on climate change. They have been dubbed the “teal” independents. Many are supported by Climate 200, a fundraising group that supports independents that advocate for strong climate action.
So if I want to Vote Climate, voting for one of these independents would be the first call.
I’ve listed the independents standing for stronger action on climate change here: https://sustainablysorted.com/voteclimate-lets-get-these-indepedants-in/
If you enter your suburb in the table, you can see if there is an independent running in your electorate.
My electorate doesn’t have an independent that supports strong action on climate change so my next best bet is to support a Greens member. More information about the Greens and their position on climate action can be found here: https://greens.org.au/policies/climate-change-and-energy
I admit my eyes glazed over looking at this website. For me, it was more fruitful looking up the name of the Greens candidate in my electorate and reading about what he stood for. It doesn’t take long to do. You might find it interesting.
If your electorate does not have a Greens members, the next best bet is the Labor party. Their position on climate action is summarised here: https://www.alp.org.au/policies
How should I order my preferences?
We have a preferential voting system in place, which I cover in this blog post: https://sustainablysorted.com/understanding-how-your-vote-counts/
And the preferences can make a difference to the final result.
So if you haven’t guessed already, my order of preferences would be:
- Independents supporting climate action
- Greens
- Labor
And the rest can appear in any other order you like (although you may want to consider the information in the sections that follow, if you want to go down a different route).
My opinion on this was informed by this website: https://www.environment.vote/ and the guides on how to Vote Climate found here: https://www.environment.vote/guide
The information in these guides have not been updated for the 2022 election but it does give you an idea of what it practically means to Vote Climate in each of your electorates. From my review, it appears the voting can be summed up by the rules I noted above – vote independent, Greens then Labor, and the rest in any order.
Why is it important to put Labor ahead of other parties?
Fact is, in most electorates, it’s going to be one of the major two parties that will win a seat, and out of the two, Labor has the best policy on climate change.
An assessment of their policy is given here: https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/alp-climate-policy-what-you-need-to-know/
On the other hand, the Liberals have a dismal record when it comes to action on climate: https://sustainablysorted.com/voteclimate-our-governments-record-on-climate-action/
So for me its important to put Labor before Liberals when I vote.
How do I rate the other parties on the ballot?
Oh my God, there are a lot of parties out there! I really couldn’t get into them all in detail but I was curious and did a quick check of their websites and this is what I found:
Here’s a list of the parties I know to be running in the election that supports action on climate change (in varying degrees):
- Fusion https://www.fusionparty.org.au/climate_emergency
- Animal justice party https://animaljusticeparty.org/policieslist/environment/
- Australian progressives https://www.progressives.org.au/environment
- Democratic alliance https://www.democraticalliance.com.au/renewables_superpower_economic_nation_building
- The new liberals https://tnl.net.au/policies/
- Informed medical options party https://imoparty.com/Policies
Parties with no stated position:
- United Australia Party (see https://www.abc.net.au/lateline/palmers-climate-change-policy/5550836 to confuse you, but by all other accounts this party is not for climate action… but despite the loud billboards, Clive Palmer is less than forthright about that position)
- Katters Australia https://kap.org.au/environment/
- Indigenous aboriginal party https://www.indigenouspartyofaustralia.com/our-policies (most likely because climate action is not one of their priorities)
And parties that clearly deny climate change or will strongly oppose any action to address it:
- One nation https://www.onenation.org.au/climate
- Liberal democrats https://www.ldp.org.au/cheap_energy
- Australias citizen party https://citizensparty.org.au/policies/climate-change
So how I will rate the other parties will depend on who is on the ballot in the first place. But in general, I would make sure One Nation, the Liberal Democrats, Australian Citizens Party and United Australia Party are last and the rest will form the middle in no particular order. The Liberals/Nationals will form part of the muddle in the middle!
Some more resources...
Other websites I came across while exploring this topic:
- https://www.sarahwilson.com/2019/05/a-how-to-voteclimate-guide/ written for the 2019 election
- https://wonderfullygreenblog.com/2019/05/12/voteclimate/ also written for the 2019 election
- http://www.voteclimate.net.au/2021-federal-election.php notes some signs you can order to show your support for climate action
- https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/climate-policies-of-major-australian-political-parties-v2.pdf a paper in May 2019 that summarises the climate policies of three political parties in Australia – the Liberals, Labour and Greens.
Happy voting!
xxx Tahsin
