The first thing we at ICAN Australia would like to do is thank all our dedicated supporters for their response to our first ever supporter survey. Your responses have been overwhelmingly positive, and your suggestions and critiques have been thoroughly engaging and though provoking and will shape the way ICAN Australia moves forward with many of our objectives for total nuclear disarmament and how we proceed with much of our future correspondence and engagement with all of you. So once again, from all of us here at ICAN Australia, thank you!

The purpose of this survey was to ascertain the opinions of ICAN Australia supporters as to their satisfaction with ICAN Australia’s work. This survey was also used to see where supporters believed ICAN Australia’s work needed to focus, regarding certain issues, such as pressuring the federal government to ratify the TPNW, fundraising, political advocacy and use of resources etc.

ICAN Australia used both online and postal surveys to reach as many supporters as possible to obtain the most representative sample possible. Email addresses were not available for some supporters, and postal addresses were not available for others. However, by offering both postal and online surveys, supporters were given as much chance as possible to offer their thoughts and opinions. Response rates to the survey both online and postal versions were in line with the average for surveys in Australia (24.47% for postal and 8.28% for online). The overall response rate to the survey was 10.12%.

Most respondents support ICAN Australia because they are deeply disturbed by the threat posed by nuclear weapons (84.4% of respondents).

Many supporters believe that political advocacy is the most important part of the work done by ICAN Australia, and overwhelmingly believe that ICAN Australia should place greater emphasis on the environmental degradation caused by nuclear weapons testing and deployment. It has been suggested that joining forces and cooperative campaigns with prominent environmental organizations could achieve this aim.

Only 33% of respondents follow ICAN Australia on social media, which means there is exceptional room for growth on social media platforms, this could be done through asking supporters to share content on their own social media accounts, generating more views, and hopefully more interest. Most ICAN Australia supporters are either looking to become more involved with the organization or are open to becoming more active. This gives ICAN Australia a wonderful platform from which to create a more inclusive environment with strong community engagement.

ICAN Australia supporters are highly motivated to receive more information and expand their knowledge base in the fight for a nuclear weapon free world and will be given the opportunity for such experience through the ICAN Australia Ban School initiative.

• There are numerous recommendations as far as the design of future surveys is concerned. These are changes to ensure a greater breadth of data both quantitative and qualitative is collected and can be examined in greater detail.
• ICAN Australia needs to show greater focus on developing engaging social media content, as this is how a growing number of individuals find their news sources.
• Indigenous rights and justice for Indigenous Australians affected by nuclear testing in Australia should be given greater attention going forward, to highlight that nuclear weapons are not an existential issue, but one that has already caused extreme suffering to people here in Australia and in neighboring states in the region.
• Financial institutions who profit from the creation of nuclear weapons has shown to be a priority concern. A database listing these companies and their contact information needs to be published and readily available to ICAN supporters so that they can request that these institutions divest from nuclear weapons.