WA Nippers parents speak out against Woodside Energy sponsorship deal
Parents have spoken out against a sponsorship deal that gives the fossil fuel company Woodside Energy naming rights over a children’s learnto-swim program, saying the climate emergency is a “child’s crisis” and the company has a role in making a product that drives climate change.
Woodside Energy, which is proposing to open up the Scarborough gasfield in Western Australia that would create more emissions than the Adani coalmine, was given the naming rights to the Nippers program by Surf Life Saving WA in 2019.
The deal marked an expansion of a 10-year-long partnership between the organisations. Full details of the arrangement have not been made public but SLSWA clubs receive $10,000 cash each year in addition to Woodsidebranded equipment including a trailer, flags, uniforms for patrol officers and children’s swim gear.
Wearing the branded uniforms is mandatory, with each child issued a cap, shirt and hat. Clubs are required to ensure the trailer is visible while activities are taking place and must refer to the program as “Woodside Nippers” when speaking in public or on social media.
Lucy Gunzburg, a longtime SLSWA member, said there had been frustration about the sponsorship of grassroots sport by a fossil fuel company but people had been reluctant to speak out until now, as concerns about climate change grew more pressing.
“We’ve contacted different clubs along the coast and there’s concern from clubs up in Broome right down to Denmark about the effects climate change will have on surf life saving as a movement,” Gunzburg said. “Obviously the climate crisis is a child’s crisis. Our children are inheriting a problem that’s not of their making.”
The International Energy Agency said in May that limiting global heating to 1.5C, a goal set out in the Paris agreement, meant exploration and exploitation of new fossil fuel basins had to stop this year.
A 2011 report from the Surf Life Saving Australia that found 55% of physical club infrastructure in WA is at risk from extreme weather and coastal erosion, made worse by the effects of the climate crisis.
Tahlia Stolarski, a graphic designer who has done work for environmental protest groups but is not a member any organisation herself, said when her fiveyear-old started at Nippers with the Fremantle club this year, she had used red paint pens to deface the uniforms by colouring in the Woodside logo.
“[The deal] means if your child wants to attend Nippers, which is an institution for Western Australian surf culture families, you don’t have a choice,” Stolarski said. “You have to plaster Woodside across your child’s chest for two hours every week.
“And Nippers is so iconic that there is no option to do something like that in Perth. It’s not like you can take your business elsewhere.”
Bo Wong, a patrol officer and veteran member of the Denmark Surf Life Saving club, said when the sponsorship agreement came into effect her club had been forced to send unbranded uniforms to landfill.
Wong, who felt compelled to speak out by her concerns about climate change, said the club was a “hugely important” community group in such a small regional area, where there was no other option for children to learn to swim in rough waters.
“It’s immoral, I believe,” she said. “Woodside are using our kids. They’re using our patrol members who are trained safety people. They’re using all of us to market themselves. And what they’re getting from us is far greater than what we’re getting from this.
“You can’t buy [trust] but that’s what Woodside’s trying to do.”
A lecturer in marketing at the University of Melbourne, Robin Canniford, said as climate change worsened, sponsorship deals with fossil fuel companies risked damaging the “integrity” of an organisation’s brand.
“You’re undermining the values that make you a useful organisation to society.”
Kerrie-Ann Garlick believes this is already happening. Garlick said her 10year-old son had refused to join Nippers after seeing a billboard advertising the “Woodside Nippers” and asking, “What’s Woodside?”
“He went on to say, ‘Why do Woodside get to sponsors Nippers? Do they come down and help them?’” she said. “I said no, and he said, ‘Well, why do they have their name on the billboard?’”
Guardian Australia spoke to other parents about their concerns with the partnership arrangement but many declined to speak on record for fear of being interpreted as criticising the SLSWA volunteers or Woodside workers.
All said that even if they do no like Woodside’s sponsorship arrangement, they support their club, the aim of the Nippers program and the Woodside workforce.
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A spokesperson for Woodside Energy said the Nippers program “is an extension of our longstanding partnership with Surf Life Saving Western Australia” and the free uniform provided to children made the program “more accessible”.
“The partnership provides significant support to the WA surf clubs and volunteers running the programs through the provision of program safety equipment and resources,” the spokesperson said.
A SLSWA spokesperson said the club could not comment on the “broad concerns” expressed by parents as it had “not received” critical feedback from its membership regarding the partnership.
“We can confirm that all of WA’s 31 x Surf Life Saving Clubs have confirmed their support of the program for 2021/22 season,” the spokesperson said.