GetUp hits back at 'extraordinary attack' by the PM

August 17, 2019
The Age


Left-wing lobby group GetUp has slammed Scott Morrison for an "undemocratic attack" on the organisation, after the Prime Minister announced a new crackdown aimed at curtailing its influence before the next federal election.   

Mr Morrison used his speech to the Liberal Party's state conference in Adelaide on Saturday to announce a renewed assault on GetUp, blaming the group for "vile, personal attacks on our candidates" in the May poll, describing it as "misogynistic" and "shady".


Prime Minister Scott Morrison has launched a fresh attack on GetUp.

He promised to "revisit GetUp's claim they are politically independent".

GetUp national director Paul Oosting hit back, defending the group's right to engage in political debate and accusing the Prime Minister of trying to set up a "kangaroo court" after the Australian Electoral Commission upheld its independence earlier this year.


Mr Morrison wants the group to be treated as an arm of Labor and the Greens and subjected to the same laws that apply to political parties.

"GetUp have to be accountable for what they say and do," he told reporters on the sidelines of the Liberal party conference on Saturday.

"They want to be in the political space, fine, call yourself a political party. You're against the Liberal party, we get that, that's okay there's no problem with that - just don't pretend you're independent."

The Prime Minister would not give details of how he planned to revisit the question of GetUp's electoral status, saying only that the government would "have more to say about it as time goes on".

Mr Oosting said that forcing the AEC to investigate the group again would be "a political stitch-up and a waste of public money".   

“Politics belongs to everyone," he said.


Scott Morrison wants to "revisit" a ruling by the Australian Electoral Commission that GetUp is an independent entity.

Mr Morrison said Australians knew where Liberals stood but that GetUp had not been "straight up" with the public, saying the group was now "a wolf in wolf's clothing" after its actions in the federal election campaign.

Backbench MP Nicolle Flint recently accused GetUp and unions of "creating an environment" where abuse, harassment, intimidation and even stalking became the "new normal" in South Australian politics, but did not offer any direct evidence that GetUp officials had directly carried out that behaviour.

Mr Morrison also referenced GetUp's controversial advertisement depicting Tony Abbott as a lifeguard ignoring pleas to help someone drowning, which the group pulled after a public outcry.

And he sought to link the group with an "anti-Semitic attack" on Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, although GetUp has condemned a legal challenge to the Kooyong MP's constitutional eligibility - based on the Hungarian citizenship of his mother, who fled the Holocaust - as "beyond offensive".

Mr Oosting said none of the events the Prime Minister referred to could be "fairly be attributed to GetUp or our supporters".

“There is no evidence - that’s why the AEC has ruled on three occasions in our favour," he said.

“The Prime Minister is levelling extraordinary attacks on everyday people who participated in politics this election."   

Senior Labor frontbencher Mark Butler said GetUp was "very clearly not a political party" and blamed the ongoing scrutiny on "an obsession within the hard-right of the Coalition party room".

"They're not running candidates," Mr Butler said in Adelaide on Saturday.

"There are a range of other third parties that participate in Australia's democracy and they should all be subject to appropriate regulation."

Mr Oosting said GetUp members were "teachers and nurses, mums and dads, students and pensioners" who had spent the election campaign having "heart to heart conversations" with voters.

“Afraid of being challenged or held to account on having no policy on climate change and the lack of support for raising Newstart, [Mr Morrison] is trying to shut down democratic participation, slurring the name of everyday people participating in our politics.   

“This would be the fourth attempt by the hard right to shut down independent grassroots campaigning.

isn't scomo supposed to be the bastion of free speech?

Or does that only apply to those who say what he wants?

I'm sure FD will be along shortly to champion Getups rights.

He promised to "revisit GetUp's claim they are politically independent"


"They want to be in the political space, fine, call yourself a political party. You're against the Liberal party, we get that, that's okay there's no problem with that - just don't pretend you're independent."


so easy!


Mr Morrison also referenced GetUp's controversial advertisement depicting Tony Abbott as a lifeguard ignoring pleas to help someone drowning, which the group pulled after a public outcry.


is that fair INDEPENDENT non bias niceness?





of course you guys think they are A.OK... they think like you do I guess.

cods wrote on Aug 18^th, 2019 at 9:39am:


Do you think that News Limited's actions or the ACCI etc to work almost exclusively for the Liberal party in the same political space is A.OK ?... they think like you do I guess.

Dnarever wrote on Aug 18^th, 2019 at 9:54am:



but they dont dna.. even they said LABOR WILL WIN AND DESERVE TOO...

just sayin like   they also promoted KRUDD and Co...

did I hear you say the SMH backed the Libs...

Personally I don't like groups like GetUp simply because we don't know who is behind them.

It's a good way for the oligarchy for example to tear down or lift up which ever politician has ignored them or promised them things respectively.

I say they and anyone else like them have to go.

Ajax wrote on Aug 18^th, 2019 at 10:04am:


You mean like advance australia?

Spot

cods wrote on Aug 18^th, 2019 at 10:13am:


The Abbott example comes to mind.

Not that I was a fan but that shouldn't happen imo.