Australian Youth Climate Coalition » Tomorrow Test

Higgins By-election Update: Two Days Left!

AnnaR — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:23:06 +0000

Saturday is the big day for Higgins, and there’s a lot of excitement building around our by-election campaign. For the last few weeks I’ve been heading up the volunteer effort in Higgins as we close in on Election Day.

Volunteering is at the heart of any good campaign. There are plenty of other vital things that go on, of course – with candidates to be interviewed, leaflets to be printed, spreadsheets of myriad flavours and designs to be juggled – but unless there are people willing to take time out of their day to go out and to talk to the voters, it all comes to naught.

Thankfully, there’s no shortage of demand for action on climate change – in fact, one of the hardest (and yet, somehow, best) parts of my job is keeping up with the sheer number of people emailing, calling and Facebooking offers to help. Often this means days on the phone at the office, but just as often I find myself exchanging numbers with someone at a party who says, “Wow, that’s really cool. How can I help?” It’s moments like those, when you’re reminded yet again of people’s passion and commitment, that make this such an awesome job.

A big part of the campaign involves talking to voters directly, but we also know a thing or two about getting attention. We knew that to kick off the Higgins campaign we needed something that said it all for the voters, linking their democratic power to the need for strong action on climate change. What we hit upon was the AYCC’s Human Tram. So on Sunday, volunteers dressed in signature AYCC Blue set off down the road with our tram props and the message, “Vote Climate, Higgins!”

The event was a huge success. Not a single person who’d agreed to come let us down, and quite a few who said they couldn’t make it rocked up anyway. We ended up with more than 30 people chugging down the road. Take a look:

The numbers are a huge relief, because we’ll need every person we can find on Saturday. In fact, if you live near Melbourne there’s still time to be a part of this pivotal week. Drop me an email (james.goldie@youthclimate coalition.org) with your phone number and I’ll help you get started.

The people of Higgins set out to vote on Saturday against one of the most extraordinary p extraordinary political backdrops in Australia’s history. It will be the last election anywhere in the developed world before Copenhagen. Nothing is certain now; anything can happen.

And when you want to create change, that’s a fantastic feeling.

Higgins By-election results!

NathanE — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:08:35 +0000

Over the last six weeks, we’ve been testing the candidates in the Higgins by-election on their plans to secure a safe climate future for young Australians. We’ve interviewed, surveyed and filmed your candidates on six key pieces of the climate puzzle – and now, we’re hitting the streets of Melbourne with a scorecard that rates them all.

We’re not asking them to support or oppose a specific scheme. Our six questions – on climate science, pollution reduction targets, international plans, public transport, clean energy and polluter subsidies – are the framework that any climate policy needs to fulfil to be effective.

We’re also not endorsing any particular candidate. We are asking Higgins voters to vote for a safe climate for our generation, and vote for the candidates that have real plans to solve the climate crisis.

So, here for the first time are the results of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition’s Tomorrow Test!

Coming to a train station and a voting booth near you:

AYCC Climate News Update 21st November

AnnaR — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:19:12 +0000

AYCC campaign kicks off in Higgins! Dr Clive Hamilton put to the Test

NathanE — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:52:52 +0000

This week we put Higgins By-Election candidate Dr Clive Hamilton to our tomorrow test. See what he has to say about climate change:

We’ll ask all the candidates questions from the same five areas of the Test, but if you’ve got a burning question for our prospective MPs, tweet us @AYCC and let us know! You can also ask him your own questions at @CliveHamilton. We’ll do our best to pass your questions on to all the candidates before polling day.

In the two by-elections being held just days before the Copenhagen Conference starts, every vote will make a difference – we know that the Australian political parties will be watching the results very closely for the effects of climate change on our voting preferences.

During the campaign, the AYCC will test every candidate on their knowledge of the climate crisis and their plans to halt it. We’ll be releasing an independent, impartial scorecard before polling day, ranking candidates on climate issues – the AYCC’s Tomorrow Test. So that we can mark them fairly, we’ll interview as many of the candidates as we can, and release the interviews on this blog every few days between now and the release of the scorecard. That way, everyone in these seats will be able to test the candidates themselves.

Bradfield Tomorrow Test hits the headlines

NathanE — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:45:45 +0000

The AYCC’s by-election campaign dominated the election pages of the North Shore Times, the largest local paper in Bradfield, on Friday 13 November. Check out this fantastic article by Andrew Priestley on the campaign and local Australian Youth Delegate, Nick Mueller, who is about to leave for Copenhagen to advocate for young Australians at the UN. Go Nick!

You can read the article online and comment at http://bit.ly/4r619i – if you tweet it, don’t forget to tag @AYCC and the North Shore Times, and you can tag the ‘Australian Youth Climate Coalition’ fan page in your wallpost on facebook too.

Don’t miss your only chance to Test your next MP on the climate crisis – the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and Killara High School are hosting the only Candidates Forum of the Bradfield campaign. It’s on this Friday, 20 November, 6-8PM at Killara High, and you can find more details and RSVP here: http://www.facebook.com/#/event.php?eid=181341957125&ref=mf

Simon Kelly put to the Tomorrow Test – Bradfield By-Election Campaign

NathanE — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:40:33 +0000

The December 5 by-elections in Bradfield and Higgins are the last elections in the developed world before the United Nations meets in Copenhagen to hammer out a global climate deal.

The next Bradfield by-election candidate interviewed is Simon Kelly, an independent. While you watch the video, ask yourself: does Simon pass the Tomorrow Test?

We’ll ask all the candidates questions from the same five areas of the Test, but if you’ve got a burning question for our prospective MPs, tweet us @AYCC and let us know! We’ll do our best to pass your questions on to all the candidates before polling day.

The AYCC and Killara High School are hosting a forum next Friday, 20 November for you to meet and Test your next MP. Check it out and RSVP here: http://www.facebook.com/#/event.php?eid=181341957125&ref=mf

In the two by-elections being held just days before the climate conference starts, every vote will make a difference – we know that the Australian political parties will be watching the results very closely for the effects of climate change on our voting preferences.

Interview with Susie Gemmell — “Tomorrow Test” begins!

NathanE — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:39:56 +0000

The December 5 by-elections in Bradfield and Higgins are the last elections in the developed world before the United Nations meets in Copenhagen to hammer out a global climate deal.

The first Bradfield by-election candidate interviewed is Susie Gemmell from the Australian Greens. While you watch the video, ask yourself: does Susie pass the Tomorrow Test?

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We’ll be bringing you more interviews from both seats in the coming weeks.

AYCC By-election Campaign

Ellen — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:47:41 +0000

UPDATE: Very recently, two elections for federal seats were called for December 5. Let’s make them climate elections!

Australia’s largest youth organisation, the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, is launching a new campaign to harness one of the most powerful weapon we have in the fight against climate change: our vote.

Two upcoming elections, in the seats of Bradfield in northern Sydney, and Higgins in eastern Melbourne, are giving nearly 200,000 Australians the chance to vote for a new national representative on December 5. These elections are the last in the entire developed world before the United Nations meets in Copenhagen to hammer out a global deal on climate change – the Copenhagen Conference starts on December 7! There has never been a better chance to vote for our climate.

We know that political advisers from every party are watching these elections very closely for changes in the national mood. Shifting hundreds or even thousands of votes on the issue of climate change will make a difference to the way the government acts in Copenhagen.

It’s vital that voters in each seat know how each candidate would represent them on climate change – and we need to know if they’re going to protect our future! So we are launching the AYCC’s Tomorrow Test – an impartial, independent analysis of every candidate’s views and plans to solve the climate crisis.

The AYCC’s Bi election team will meet with every candidate, test their knowledge and passion on stopping climate change, and rate their plans against the world’s best scientific and economic advice.

Young people from across each seat will hand out the full scorecard at train stations, shopping centres and voting booths on election day. It will be published online, here at the Tomorrow Test blog and on Facebook, Twitter and media websites.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll blog here on each of the 5 parts of the Test, which are:

Targets. Over 1500 young people from these two seats voted in Youth Decide, Australia’s national youth vote on climate change, and over 90% of them voted for targets above 40% by 2020. Does your candidate live up to the young voters in their area?
Public transport. A fast, efficient and effective public transport system is necessary if we want to avoid dangerous climate change. Would your candidate guarantee support for transport in their area?
Clean energy. Australia is one of the best places in the world to develop renewable energy sources like solar, wind, geothermal and wave power. Would your candidate back the clean energy technologies that will secure our future?
Fossil fuel subsidies. Australian governments continue to support polluting energy companies to the tune of $10-11 billion, every year. The legislation before Parliament right now from the Rudd government includes even more support for coal-fired power stations. Would your candidate follow the G20 and phase out this fossilised way of thinking?
International climate plans. A meeting of over 190 governments will design a global deal on climate change in Copenhagen this December, and it is vital that it’s a good deal for our generation. We’ll quiz your candidates on the plans they want to see the government take to Copenhagen this December, and ask how they would help our Pacific neighbours to adapt to climate change.

Stay tuned in the next five weeks for all the news from the campaign, details of our candidate interviews, guest posts from Australian Youth Delegates to the Copenhagen Conference and all the best climate news, views and youtubes from around the world. There’s really only one question you should be asking yourself…

Does your candidate pass the Tomorrow Test?

AYCC team.