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Hallmarks of an effective non-governmental organisation: the formation and management of 's Wentworth Group

Vanclay, Jerome K https://researchportal.scu.edu.au/discovery/delivery/61SCU_INST:ResearchRepository/1266861380002368?l#1367453990002368

Vanclay, J. K. (2010). Hallmarks of an effective non-governmental organisation: the formation and management of Australia’s Wentworth Group. Science and Public Policy, 37(9), 719–722. https://researchportal.scu.edu.au/discovery/fulldisplay/alma991012820686902368/61SCU_INST:Research Repository

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Please do not remove this page Science and Public Policy, 37(9), November 2010, pages 719–722 DOI: 1010.3152/030234210X12835083817252; http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/beech/spp

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Hallmarks of an effective non-governmental organisation: the formation and management of Australia’s Wentworth Group

Jerome K Vanclay

Australia’s Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists has been highly effective in advancing policy solutions for Australia’s land, water and biodiversity. The success of this group relies not only on high- profile individuals and clear communication, but also on organizational support and influential connections. The group’s influence was maximized because membership was carefully selected, well- funded, and skillfully managed by a full-time campaign manager who was well-connected to key media and political decision-makers. This article offers evidence countering the emerging popular view that the Wentworth Group was spontaneous, and it offers lessons for other environmental NGOs seeking to influence government policy.

ARAH BELL (2006) EXAMINED some of Popular notions of the Wentworth Group the communication strategies that have con- S tributed towards the success of Australia’s My recollection (Vanclay, 2003) is that the member- Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, an inde- ship and timing of the early meetings of the Went- pendent group of scientists concerned with advanc- worth Group were carefully crafted, but the view ing solutions to secure the long-term health of commonly promulgated is that the meetings were Australia’s land, water and biodiversity (Wentworth spontaneous, and there is a danger that this romantic Group, 2010). However, the success of this group re- notion may become more embellished with time. lies not only on high-profile individuals and clear In 2004, Wentworth Group member Peter Cullen communication, but also on their organization and (2004) wrote: influential connections. In 2002 when the Went- worth Group was formed, I was teaching natural re- The Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists source policy and followed their progress closely. was formed at the Wentworth Hotel in Sydney The notes I made at the time (Vanclay, 2003), con- on Thursday 10th October 2002. We had been trast with the some of the views now promulgated. invited by the World Wide Fund for Nature to The differences are instructive, and offer further in- gather to discuss some of the amazing things sights in how non-government organisations (NGOs) being given prominence by radio commentators can be effective. This commentary on the formation during the drought … The WWF invited us to a and management of the Wentworth Group seeks to meeting starting at around 5.00pm to discuss provide guidance for other NGOs seeking to influ- these issues and to develop some counter ar- ence government policy. It also illustrates how guments. A spirited discussion took place, and ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ and may vary there was broad agreement about the main according to temporal and philosophical viewpoint. points, although as might be expected, there were many differing views on the emphasis and priority that could be given to various aspects of the issue. At about 7.00 pm we adjourned Jerome K Vanclay is at the School of Environmental Science and into an adjacent room for dinner, where we Management, Southern Cross University, PO Box 157, Lismore NSW 2480, Australia; Email: [email protected]. were joined by three invited journalists, Nick

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discourse about drought, water and natural re- Professor Jerry Vanclay is Head of the School of Environ- source policy in Australia. mental Science and Management at Southern Cross Uni- versity, Australia. He was previously Professor of Tropical Forestry in Copenhagen, and Principal Scientist at the Cen- I suspect that the Wentworth Hotel was deliberately ter for International Forestry Research. He has taught natu- chosen to align the group with the then Prime Minis- ral resource policy for the past decade, and maintains research interests in systems modelling and in quantitative ter (John Howard), who customarily celebrated his aspects of forest management. His most recent book is Re- election victories there, and that this choice of hotel alizing Community Futures: A Practical Guide to Harnessing reflects the careful planning and attention to detail Natural Resources (Earthscan, 2006). that underscores the success of the Wentworth Group.

Grimm from the [Australian Broadcasting Cor- poration’s] AM program, Anthony Hoy from Formation of the Wentworth Group the Bulletin and Asa Wahlquist from The Aus- tralian [newspaper]. Asa Wahlquist described In early 2002, businessman Robert Purves, the Pres- the dinner in an article in the Weekend Austral- ident of WWF Australia, made a donation of Aus- ian Magazine of May 31 2003. ‘Desert eaten, tralian $1.5 million1 to start the ‘anti-land-clearing the discussion continued to take many energet- campaign’, a major, national, four-year campaign to ic, if undisciplined turns. The evening was reduce land clearing in Australia.2 Peter Cosier, pre- threatening to collapse under the weight of so viously the senior environmental policy advisor3 to many fine ideas, when one of the journalists Senator Robert Hill, was hired as campaign manager present banged the table. “What are you going for this campaign.4 Cosier knew that this would be a to do about it?” he demanded’ … It was not tough campaign, and it was made tougher by the difficult, and in 15 minutes we had agreed the drought — but the drought also provided an oppor- five-point plan that was the foundation of the tunity. Wentworth Group’s Blueprint for a Living The Farmhand Foundation5 was launched on 3 Continent. I read the statement straight from October 2002,6 apparently with the aim of selling the computer screen, since we had no printer Telstra and using some of the proceeds to turn handy. It was recorded by Nick Grimm, and coastal rivers inland to ‘drought-proof’ Australia.7 went to air next morning on AM. As Asa Cosier would have been well aware this, because in Wahlquist reports in the Australian article, ‘the September 2002, Senator Meg Lees8 had been trying astonished journalist applauded’, ‘Their state- to arrange a: ment hit the media like a drought-breaking storm.’ cooperative effort between various green groups, steered by Peter Cosier — a former By 2006, Cullen (2006) offered a different emphasis: staffer of former environment minister Robert Hill — to put together a ‘wish list’ of spending A group of experienced scientists from a varie- priorities for Telstra money. ty of disciplines, who had spent their careers trying to understand the Australian landscape, Cosier knew that ‘turning rivers inland’ would be a came together in some despair at the wide- disaster for the environment, but seized the oppor- spread community misunderstanding about our tunity created by the media attention, and contacted landscape and the variability of rainfall that ten respected scientists9 and hastily arranged10 for characterizes it. them to meet over dinner. Within a week (on 10 Oc- tober 2002) the group convened (without expecta- Bell (2006) offered a different slant: tions11) at the Wentworth Hotel to respond to the Farmhand proposal and advance the ‘anti-land- With philanthropic funding from a little known clearing campaign’.12 In addition to the ten scien- millionaire, aged-care businessman Robert tists, Cosier invited three journalists to report the Purves, the World Wide Fund for Nature in event: Nick Grimm from the ABC,13 Asa Wahlquist Australia (WWF Australia) invited a group of from The Australian14 and Anthony Hoy from The leading environmental scientists and advisors to Bulletin.15 dinner. The purpose of the dinner meeting at Grimm reported on the meeting in the ABC’s AM Sydney’s five-star Wentworth Hotel was to program the following day,16 quite an achievement discuss how best to respond to the Farmhand since the same program aired the news that the US Appeal, Jones, and the ecologically dangerous Congress had given President Bush authority to at- ideas about drought-proofing that were getting tack Iraq. Grimm subsequently received the 2003 so much media coverage. Taking their name Eureka award for his story17 that: from the hotel where they were dining, the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists a small group of scientists gathered in a Sydney emerged from that meeting to transform public hotel to share a meal and their concerns about

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the directions the national discussion on the en- Soon after, Premier Carr asked the Wentworth vironment had taken Group for advice on land clearing. Their advice quickly appeared in draft form on the CSIRO web- and that: site early in February 2003,23 and a more presentable form appeared on the WWF website two weeks lat- It had been the photo on the front page of a er.24 Sydney newspaper of a young girl standing in A little later (31 July 2003), there was a second the drought-ravaged paddocks of her parents’ blueprint, Blueprint for a National Water Plan.25 farm, which initially stirred the group of emi- The Wentworth Group are extremely productive, be- nent scientists to gather at short notice.13 cause although they met ‘only two or three times’19 during their first year, they produced three influen- Sadly, the major Sydney daily newspaper, The Sydney tial documents within that first year, all of which Morning Herald, is strangely devoid of photos of adopt a standard WWF format. More recently, they drought-stricken girls throughout September and ear- have produced several other reports in a range of ly October in 2002 (Vanclay, 2003). Miranda formats (Wentworth Group, 2010), and initiated a 18 Devine from the SMH seems to have been the only mentoring program supported by the Purves Envi- 26 reporter who observed at the time that the Wentworth ronmental Fund. Group were the ‘respectable face’ of the WWF, con- Why have the Wentworth Group been so success- vened to counter the Farmhand Foundation, the ful? Their success has been helped by a good sense respectable face of the push to privatize Telstra. of timing, careful planning and behind-the-scenes At the Wentworth Hotel, there had apparently management, sufficient funds and a full-time cam- been a vigorous discussion about the issues, but it paign manager who was politically astute and well- was reputedly a journalist19 who said discussions connected. In addition, a competing story (Jones– were not enough; that a few specific points were Farmhand–Telstra and turning rivers inland) helped needed to create a story, and they were needed now, to generate the polarisation of issues that the media so that he could write his story before the news love. The group has also had a carefully directed ad- deadline later that night. Grimm claimed16 that it vertising campaign, with half-page and full-page ad- was he who suggested that: vertisements in prominent newspapers.27 It is reasonable to ask whether the Wentworth they needed a statement, one that would ad- Group really are a truly independent ‘group of con- vance the national environmental debate. cerned scientists’, or are merely the respectable face of WWF. A search of published literature suggests The same day, a statement from the group appeared that all of the individual scientists have remained on the WWF website,20 and the next morning there true to their earlier academic research, so it does ap- was a response from the Prime Minister.12 Grimm16 pear that the Wentworth Group has maintained sci- claimed that: entific credibility, even as they harnessed political opportunity. The result was Blueprint for a Living Conti- Cullen (2004) has suggested that: nent, which prompted Prime Minister John Howard to call a scientific summit to look at Giving three senior journalists an exclusive ways to respond to Australia's drought, turned out to be very powerful … We were clearly lucky with our timing in that the Blue- but the blueprint was not published until three weeks print was released at a time that caught the later, and it seems unlikely that the Prime Minister window of interest when the media was looking would arrange such a meeting within a few hours for an answer to all the drought stories that had during the early morning … been being aired in previous weeks. A key part of building this media momentum was our Nevertheless, three weeks later first blueprint, ‘staying on message’ rather than having it de- Blueprint for a Living Continent,21 was pub- velop in unplanned ways. We had made it plain lished22 (3 November 2003). It had gone that we were delivering the Blueprint to the through ‘about 20 drafts’,19 most of them Prime Minister and the State Premiers before worked over carefully by a ‘really good media its public release on the Web and in hard copy. wordsmith from WWF’22 to make it more ac- This probably added to the media interest. cessible to the general public. There was also media interest because we were taking on a very well known and influential ra- One anomaly among all this is the Foreword to the dio shock jock in Alan Jones who had been Blueprint, which was written by Tim Flannery on proposing to turn the rivers inland to ‘drought ‘Australia Day 2002’. Australia Day is 26 January; proof our country. This element of conflict with perhaps the blueprint was not the product of the din- a well-known figure stimulated interest. The ner at the Wentworth Hotel, but may have had a other factor was some mystique surrounding much longer gestation … the Wentworth Group — Who were we? Why

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we were speaking out? Why were scientists act- 15. Anthony Hoy, Watering a Continent, The Bulletin, 16 October 2002, , last Wentworth Group? accessed 27 August 2004. 16. AM Program Archive, 11 October 2002, , last accessed 27 August 2004; but Flannery ceeded because of other political and media connec- (see Note 11) claims that it was Wahlquist who asked, tions: few scientists are able to grab the media ‘Where’s your manifesto?’. 17. The birth of the Wentworth Group, Australian Museum headlines and elicit comment from the Prime Minis- Eureka Prizes, , last accessed tary conflict! 27 August 2004. 18. Miranda Devine, Drought relief sceptics must be hung out to dry, Sydney Morning Herald, 13 October 2002, , last accessed 27 August 2004. Notes 19. Professor Ronnie Harding, personal communication, 27 Au- gust 2003. 1. President Robert Purves, WWF Australia, , last accessed 27 Au- , last accessed 27 2. Now called Save Australia’s Endangered Bushlands, new August 2004. (Although the URL contains the date 11-10-02, campaign for WWF Australia, , last ac- quick work on the part of the WWF Webmaster.) cessed 27 August 2003. 21. The blueprint is available at , last ac- Bushland Listed, Media Release, 23 September 1998, , last accessed 22. Wentworth Group delivers blueprint to rebuild Australian 27 August 2004. landscape, WWF Media Release, 3 November 2002, 4. What is Needed to Reduce Landclearing, WWF Australia, , last accessed 27 August 2004. lands_wwf.htm>, last accessed 27 August 2003. 23. Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists Report to Premier 5. Farmhand, , last accessed 27 Carr, A New Model for Landscape Conservation in New August 2003. South Wales, 3 February 2003, , last accessed 27 of town, NSW Country Hour, , last accessed 27 August 2003. August 2004. 7. The aims of Farmhand are not clear, but the Telstra link is 24. WWF press release of 18 February 2003 at , last accessed 27 August 2004; and report at , conservation0203.pdf>, last accessed 27 August 2004. last accessed 27 August 2004. 25. , last accessed 27 August 2004. , last accessed 27 August 2004. org.au/>, last accessed 21 June 2010. 9. Professor Peter Cullen (Australian Environmentalist of the 27. A quarter-page ad in the Weekend Australian (30 December– Year 2001); Professor Tim Flannery (Director, South Australi- 1 November 2002, p. 15) explaining how to obtain their blue- an Museum); Assoc. Professor Ronnie Harding (Chair, WWF print and carrying the simple message: ‘our generation can Australia Scientific Advisory Committee); Dr Steve Morton leave a legacy of living rivers and healthy landscapes, not (Chief, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems), Professor Hugh drains and dustbowls’ (, last accessed 27 August 2004), and a visory Committee), Dr Denis Saunders (formerly CSIRO Chief full-page ad in the Australian Financial Review on 12 August Research Scientist), Professor Bruce Thom (Chair, 2001, 2003, calling on the Council of Australian Governments to Australian State of the Environment Committee), Dr John Wil- implement a national water plan which would create a nation- liams (Chief, CSIRO Land and Water), Professor Mike Young ally consistent system of water entitlement, licensing and (Director, CSIRO Policy and Economic Research Unit), Mr trading (, last accessed 27 August 2004). Leith Boully (Chair, Murray Darling Basin Community Adviso- ry Committee) – this not-quite alphabetical order with ‘heavy- weights’ first is the order used in the first Blueprint. 10. Professor Ronnie Harding, a member of the Group, confirmed that invitations were made during the days immediately fol- lowing 3 October 2002 (personal communication, 27 August References 2003). 11. Tim Flannery, Dean’s Lecture, University of , 13 Bell, Sarah, 2006. Concerned scientists, pragmatic politics and October 2003, , p. 7, last accessed 17 March 2010. Cullen, P 2004. Turning the tide: how does science change public 12. WWF Australia meeting prompts PM to call drought summit, policy? World Water Day Address, CSIRO Land and Water WWF Australia Campaign News, 11 October 2002, , last accessed 27 August 2004. North American Benthological Society Annual Conference, 13. Nick Grimm, Scientists condemn drought-proofing of conti- Anchorage, Alaska, USA, June. nent, AM, Friday 11 October 2002, , last accessed 27 August 2004. in FOR00110 Natural Resource Policy, Southern Cross Uni- 14. George Megalogenis and Asa Wahlquist, Water reform will versity, 3 October. cost $20bn, The Australian, 2 November 2002, , last accessed 21 June html>, last accessed 27 August 2004. 2010.

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