As degrowth becomes a more familiar term worldwide, a loose informal network of Australian degrowth activists, scholars and advocates has emerged into the formal Degrowth Network Australia (DNA). The network has a public launch in a participatory degrowth workshop at 2pm–4pm on 26 February 2023 — a National Sustainable Living Festival event at the Black Spark Cultural Centre in Northcote, an inner suburb of Melbourne (Victoria, Australia).

Calls for this network have mounted among activists keen to get degrowth explicitly on the agenda within environmental campaigns, trade unions, and political parties such as the Australian Greens. Nearby, in New Zealand, there are allies in the non-aligned Degrowth Aotearoa NZ (DANZ) and the Degrowth Greens Network of The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand. Many Australian and other Oceanic and Pacific First Nations communities steadfastly hold to cultures and everyday practices that nurture Earth and care for people, making them implicitly degrowth in their approaches and values.

Practical initiatives across Australia already support degrowth. There are growing numbers of repair cafes, tool libraries, programs to diminish waste, local community supported agriculture and regenerative farming. By way of an example, pig farmer and meat-smith Tammi Jonas (President of the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance) intentionally and outspokenly practices degrowth farming and processing.

Numerous Australian activist scholars have written and spoken about degrowth over the last decade. They include Ariel Salleh, Samuel Alexander and Brendan Gleeson, Terry Leahy, Anitra Nelson, Ted Trainer, and Australians working overseas such as Ferne Edwards and Nick Fitzpatrick.

Degrowth Network Australia is mapping all these types of practical and research activities, identifying advocates, work, and setting up a website and social media contact pages.

To contribute, join the network or get more details, contact Anisa Rogers or Natalie Lowrey (contact details on webpage below).

Get involved
The Degrowth Network meets online around once a month, currently on the second Wednesday of the month 12pm to 2pm AEST.

Meetings provide a platform to hear from people who are active in the movement and for discussions, debates and reporting on what's happening around the country. We support each others projects and hope to organise events and work collaboratively on degrowth projects.

What is Degrowth by the way?
Degrowth is an idea that critiques the global capitalist system, a system which pursues economic growth at all costs, causing human exploitation and environmental destruction. The degrowth movement of activists and researchers advocates for societies that prioritise social and ecological well-being instead of corporate profits, over-production and excess consumption. This requires radical redistribution, reduction in the material size of the global economy, and a shift in common values towards care, solidarity, and autonomy. Degrowth means transforming societies to ensure environmental justice and a good life for all within planetary boundaries. (From www.degrowth.info).