Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) is an Australian, non-partisan, special advocacy group that seeks to establish an ecologically sustainable human population. It works on many fronts to encourage informed public debate about how Australia and the world can achieve an ecologically, socially and economically sustainable population. SPA’s local activities are run by its 6 state brances: ACT, NSW, SA & NT, Vic & Tas, Qld and WA. Some branches hold regular meetings but the main link between members is the Newsletter, produced four times a year. This provides members with information and expert opinion to rebut the many myths about sustainability and population that one hears in conversation or sees in the press. SPA was founded in Canberra in 1988 as Australians for an Ecologically Sustainable Population.
Further information
– The people of SPA
– The history of SPA (and its predecessor, AESP)
– SPA state Branches
– Frequently Asked Questions
Key documents
– SPA Population Position and Policy Statement
– SPA Constitution
– SPA Brochure (sourced 5/1/2022 from https://population.org.au/about/)
What We Do
Sustainable Population Australia is a community of people who are deeply concerned about environmental deterioration in the world, including climate change and biodiversity loss, and worried about the future for humanity. Our members are not willing to accept the disingenuous claims that it is only our consumption behaviours, not our numbers, that matter for sustainability. They are dismayed by other environmental organisations’ neglect or misrepresentation of population issues. SPA helps its members turn their concerns into action. To raise public awareness of population and sustainability issues we:
– Run events such as symposia, film screenings and speaker tours
– Hold stalls at other events
– Provide speakers for other organisations
– Liaise with other environmental organisations
– Publish articles in various media
– Host the Post-Growth podcast
– Create videos for distribution through social media and our YouTube channel
To help shift the political discourse on population issues we:
– Write submissions to government inquiries
– Write media releases
– Commission and publish professional analyses of aspects of the population debate
– Collaborate to conduct surveys of public knowledge and opinion on population growth
– Run petitions
– Visit and write to members of parliament
To help reduce further growth in global population we:
– Liaise with like-minded organisations in other countries
– Engage with United Nations conferences (climate change and Sustainable Development Goals) as an observer organisation
– Support African colleagues to attend United Nations conferences, and host side-events and exhibits showcasing their work on family planning
– Promote family planning charities to Australian donors
– Lobby for increased funding for Australian aid generally, and for voluntary family planning activities in particular
To support our members in their advocacy we:
– Publish eNews containing links to recent media stories and resources
– Publish a quarterly newsletter containing feature articles, book reviews and news
– Host an email forum