Activist group GetUp! to use SMS technology to try to unseat top targets including Abbott, Dutton
Controversial activist group GetUp! is deploying latest peer-to-peer SMS technology to remove former prime minister Tony Abbott and one-time Liberal leadership aspirant Peter Dutton from parliament.
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Controversial activist group GetUp! is deploying latest peer-to-peer SMS technology to remove former prime minister Tony Abbott and one-time Liberal leadership aspirant Peter Dutton from parliament.
In an interview with News Corp, GetUp! national director Paul Oosting revealed the left-leaning group was using a text-message scheme refined during the 2017 marriage equality plebiscite.
Younger voters in Mr Dutton’s Queensland electorate of Dixon and Mr Abbott’s NSW seat of Warringah are sent an automated SMS posing a question, which then coaxes them into a conversation with GetUp! volunteers promoting the group’s causes.
“We found in the marriage equality plebiscite it was quite impactful because one of the important audiences then was: ‘Were the young people going to bother?’,” Mr Oosting said.
Mr Oosting said GetUp! members had identified Mr Abbott and Mr Dutton as priorities and the organisation had been swamped by a “quite gobsmacking” number of volunteers eager to oust the pair.
Asked how much GetUp! was spending in the two seats, Mr Oosting said this would be revealed post-election.
But he declared between $200,000 and $300,000 had been spent in previous similar polls on resources including staff, events and advertising.
More than $1.6 million has been donated to GetUp! in the past 30 days, according to its website, and its war chest has swollen by almost $13 million in the past year.
Coalition campaign spokesman Simon Birmingham said: “GetUp! pretend to have all sorts of motivations but ultimately the reason (Opposition Leader) Bill Shorten supported their establishment is because they support his policies to radically raise taxes.
“No matter how you look at it, GetUp! is simply a front for Labor and the Greens, saying or doing things that Bill Shorten isn’t honest enough to say or do himself.”
He was speaking before GetUp! was this week forced into an embarrassing backdown over an attack ad mocking Mr Abbott for his climate change views after a backlash from lifesavers.
The activist group pulled a short clip of Mr Abbott, which depicts him as a lifesaver refusing to rescue a drowning swimmer, on Wednesday before it was due to air in cinemas next week.
GetUp! is also campaigning to defeat other “hard Right” MPs.
THE GETUP! HITLIST
South Australia: Nicolle Flint
Victoria: Kevin Andrews, Greg Hunt, Josh Frydenberg
WA: Christian Porter
NSW: Tony Abbott, Barnaby Joyce
Queensland: Peter Dutton, George Christensen.
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