Overview:

• Title: Offshore Gas Levy Campaigner
• Employer: Friends of The Earth (FoE) Melbourne
• Contract Type: Fixed term contract - Part Time - 12 months
• Hours: 4.5 days per week
• Start Date: October 2022
• Location: preferably Melbourne but regional Victoria considered

About Us:

Friends of The Earth (FoE) Melbourne is a not-for-profit community-based organisation working for a socially equitable and environmentally sustainable future for more than 45 years. Friends of The Earth Melbourne is an anti-hierarchical organisation and a local member group of the national federation Friends of the Earth Australia, which in turn is a member of Friends of the Earth International.

The Friends of the Earth International federation is the world's largest grassroots environmental network with over 2 million members and supporters around the world. FoE campaigns from the local to the global on today's most urgent environmental and social issues; challenging the current model of economic and corporate neoliberal globalisation, and promoting solutions to create environmentally sustainable and socially just societies.

We don’t have a CEO or bosses, we strive for anti-hierarchy and practice consensus decision-making.

Background:

In June 2020 the federal government offered more than 80,000 square kilometres of new offshore licences to oil and gas explorers in all corners of Australia’s waters, from WA to Victoria and Tasmania. Development of even a handful of these will lock in decades of greenhouse pollution. But the offering of these new licences also comes as many investors are shifting from fossil fuels, social licence for fossil fuels is eroding and projects have a high chance of becoming stranded assets.

The Morrison government announced in May 2021 that it would impose a levy of 48¢ per barrel on the entire industry to fund the remediation of a rig in the Timor Sea. Friends of the Earth want to make a levy like this a permanent requirement for all new onshore and offshore oil and gas projects.

We also want to influence the Offshore Oil and Gas Decommissioning Framework Review to strengthen the laws that govern decommissioning.

This would ensure that all projects have to undertake comprehensive and best practice remediation to prevent further pollution of the natural environment. It would make companies fully accountable for the costs of remediation, and future projects may be deemed non-viable when the full costs of decommissioning are taken into account.

About The Role:

The Offshore Gas Levy campaigner will work with the FoE Melbourne No More Gas Collective and FoE Melbourne campaign coordinators to develop broad political and community support for a levy to be made permanent and the Decommissioning Framework strengthened.

Building on community opposition to onshore and offshore gas projects, they will build alliances with First Nations peoples, community groups, unions and industry stakeholders in support of the levy, and transform this community and civil society power into policy outcomes.

The role will involve policy research, developing political strategy, networking with allies, media and communications and lobbying government and the cross bench MPs.

Key Responsibilities:

The Offshore Gas Levy Campaigner will:

• Lead community outreach to build public understanding of the levy with all stakeholders.
• Build broad political and community support for the levy to be made permanent
• Build understanding with the public and politicians on the cost and non viability of future gas fields
• Demonstrate broad community opposition and resistance to new offshore oil and gas projects
• Ensure the review of the offshore oil and gas regulatory framework establishes the best outcomes for the environment and campaign objectives
• Build capacity and buy in from key unions for a levy to facilitate a just energy transition.

Key Selection Criteria:

Essential:

• Understanding of the campaign, advocacy and political/ legislative landscape in Australia.
• Experience in delivery of issues-based advocacy campaigns.
• Experience in campaign directed community organising.
• Excellent writing skills.
• Ability to work with a range of allies, including grassroots climate groups, business groups, unions..
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively as part of a collective.
• Strong skills in creation of digital content across a broad range of online platforms.
• Excellent research skills and familiarity with policy development processes.

Desirable:

• Knowledge of and experience in fossil gas campaigning.
• Proficiency with using digital advocacy campaign platforms and resources, preferably Nation Builder.
• Experiencing in a consensus based organisations
• Experience working with volunteers
• Experience in lobbying at the state and federal level
• Experience working in alliance based organisations

Accountability:

The Offshore Gas Levy Campaigner reports back to the No More Gas Collective, and to the FoE Melbourne Strategy Collective.

The worker will be supported on a day to day basis by the FoE Campaigns Coordinators.

Salary & Conditions:

The Offshore Gas Levy Campaigner would be employed under the Friends of the Earth Melbourne workers agreement. Friends of The Earth Melbourne has a policy of wage equity and as such all workers are paid at the same hourly rate.

The current commencing pay rate for this position is $40.35 per hour with a yearly salary of $83,928.00 per annum, pro rata, plus superannuation and entitlements.

Hours of work:

This is a fixed term 12 month contract for 4.5 days/36 hours per week (0.9FTE)

At Friends of The Earth Melbourne we consider a working day to be 8 hours, including a paid 1 hour lunch break and the option of flexitime within a working day or week.

Friends of The Earth Melbourne (FoEM), our campaigns office, community meeting space and Food Co-op and Cafe are located in Yálla-Birrang, Wurundjeri Country, in the Kulin Nation.

We acknowledge that we meet and organise across many nations spanning the area currently known as Victoria where sovereignty has never been ceded. We pay respects to First Nations elders past and present and acknowledge the pivotal role First Nations peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples play in the struggle for environmental and social justice.

For any further information please contact [email protected] or [email protected] using the subject line: Offshore Gas Levy Campaigner enquiry via EthicalJobs.

A position description is attached.