• Full time: 38 hours per week, 12-month position
• Salary: $89,415.87 - $104,311.42 (depending on experience) plus 11.5% superannuation and five weeks leave

THE ROLE

The Environment Centre NT is creating a new role, designed especially to campaign to protect the spectacular free-flowing rivers and aquifers that define the Northern Territory, which are exceptional on a national and global scale and facing unprecedented threats from fracking, cotton and climate change.

The campaigner will utilise and develop their policy know-how and place-based organising skills to stop threats to the Northern Territory’s freshwater from fracking in the Beetaloo Basin, the rapid expansion of the cotton industry, and climate change, and advocate for better policy outcomes that protect our freshwater and respect the knowledge traditions and governance systems of Traditional Owners.

The role will involve close collaboration with other conservation organisations, campaign organisations, First Nations organisations, key stakeholders and community groups, with the aim of protecting some of the last remaining intact ecosystems left in Australia. We can’t repeat the mistakes of the Murray Darling Basin in the Northern Territory.

ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT CENTRE NT

The Environment Centre NT is the peak environmental organisation in the Northern Territory (NT). We have been working to protect the NT environment since 1983. Our vision is for ‘thriving nature and a sustainable future for all Territorians’.

We are the trusted, independent, voice on environmental issues in the NT and we fearlessly hold governments and industry to account in pursuit of our vision. We have expanded rapidly in the last 18 months in response to escalating environmental threats (including the climate and extinction crises). We are currently running a number of cutting-edge campaigns across our key strategic work themes: mining, climate, freshwater and biodiversity that require a sophisticated and multi-layered communications strategy. For more information, please visit our website: ecnt.org.au.

ECNT acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the unceded lands and waters upon which we work and their role in caring for country for millennia, now, and into the future.

Key performance measures

• Develop, participate and implement ECNT’s freshwater campaign strategy in collaboration with partners such as Pew Charitable Trusts, to change mindsets, shift power and protect our rivers and aquifers;
• Collaborate with ECNT campaign partners, including ECNT’s partnership with Pew Charitable Trusts, to deliver on shared campaign objectives, and to grow an effective alliance for change and a positive team culture;
• Increase public understanding of the risks and threats to the Top End’s rivers and aquifers, and the importance of their protection through digital (social media, email, petitions) and face-to-face (events, outreach trips, market stalls) engagement;
• Develop and implement strategies in response to real-world developments, to maximise campaign opportunities as they arise, in alignment with ECNT’s freshwater campaign strategy;
• Work collaboratively to generate and guide engaging and purposeful content (social media, direct emails, petitions, reports, fact sheets, guides) for use across diverse channels, where content is anything that inspires a chosen audience to act;
• Engage with the public, Traditional Owners, Indigenous organisations and a range of other stakeholders (including industry and government) regarding these risks and threats, and work towards collaboratively establishing the public and political foundations for significant changes that deliver best practice water policies, including integrated, durable catchment-scale management and protection Northern Territory rivers and aquifers;
• Conduct policy and scientific research, prepare submissions and analyse information (including policy) as needed to support campaign goals;
• Provide transparent and effective reporting of campaign strategy, approach, plans and progress to the Executive Director as required.

Selection criteria

• Experience in, or demonstrated capacity to learn about, water policy and legislation;
• Experience in planning and delivering successful people-powered campaigns;
• An ability to leverage networks and engage with collaborators with different perspectives to achieve outcomes;
• Intellectual ability to understand dynamic and complex scientific, social and political issues
• Interpersonal relationship skills, in particular building constructive and long-term relationships with both internal and external parties
• Experience in building effective relationships in complex and sensitive situations, and an ability to deal with conflict;
• Excellent written and oral communications skills, with an ability to tailor the message and language for different purposes/audiences;
• Time management skills, in particular the ability to plan, organise and prioritise multiple projects and maintain tight deadlines.
• A commitment to environment protection and action on climate change.

We are committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants. We actively encourage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people from Culturally & Linguistically Diverse backgrounds, LGBTIQA+ people, a diverse range of genders, people with disability and others who have diverse experiences of our world to apply for this opportunity.

Please contact Kirsty Howey on [email protected], using the subject line: Freshwater Campaigner enquiry via EthicalJobs for any questions.

A position description is attached.