GetUp! forced to pull ad after backlash from lifesavers

Left-wing activist group GetUp! has been forced into its second humiliating backdown of the federal election campaign after having to pull a commercial mocking former prime minister Tony Abbott.

Left-wing activist group GetUp! has been forced into its second humiliating backdown of the federal election campaign after having to pull a commercial mocking former prime minister Tony Abbott.

The move came after a backlash from lifesavers after the ad featured a Mr Abbott look-alike refusing to save a drowning person while eating an onion as an analogy to his stance on climate change.

The group said it was wrong to produce the commercial and it had the greatest respect for Australian lifesavers and apologised for the “insensitivity of the timing and subject matter of our planned ad”.

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It came just days after two Victorian volunteer lifesavers drowned off Port Campbell, in the state’s southwest.

Tony Abbott said GetUp! owed an apology to every ­volunteer lifesaver. Picture: Jane Dempster

The group was also forced the change instructions to volunteers in Kooyong last week after it encouraged them to lie to candidates by telling them Treasurer Josh Frydenberg was “part of the coup” which brought down Malcolm Turnbull.

Mr Abbott said GetUp! owed an apology to every ­volunteer lifesaver.

“Forget me, but GetUp! should apologise to Australia’s 150,000 plus surf lifesavers for mocking what they do,” Mr Abbott said.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, former PM John Howard and Mr Abbott’s challenge Zali Steggall slammed the video as a poor taste attack on the veteran Liberal MP.

In a statement on Wednesday GetUp! said: “We have heard the criticism of the Royal Lifesavers and are pulling our satirical ad about Tony Abbott’s inaction on climate change, which was slated to be airing in cinemas next week”.

Mr Abbott has been a ­volunteer surf lifesaver for more than 20 years as well as a member of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service.

A screengrab from the Get Up! video. Picture: YouTube

Mr Howard said the ad was “disgraceful” and highly offensive to surf lifesaving volunteers.

“Tony Abbott, whatever you may think of him — people don’t like him, people don’t like me, that’s politics — but nobody can deny his genuine commitment to community service in firefighting and as a lifesaver.

“To depict him as somebody who would sit on the beach and allow somebody to drown is absolutely unacceptable and it was a disgrace to Australian politics that it ever appeared.”

Royal Life Saving Society chief Justin Scarr slammed the video following the deaths of Victorian volunteers Ross Powell, 71, and his son Andrew, 32, on Easter Sunday.

The pair died after their boat flipped during the rescue of a 30-year-old man from waters near the Twelve Apostles.

Royal Life Saving Society chief Justin Scarr slammed the video. Picture: David Swift

“There’s nothing funny about drowning, the ad is very poor taste, especially in such a tragic week,” he said.

“I will leave the politics to others but feel compelled to call it out for what it is, on behalf of the families of the 250 Australians who drowned over the past year.”

Ms Steggall, who has denied links to GetUp! said: “I don’t approve of that kind of advertising. I think you need to focus on policies and not smear campaigns in relation to people.”

Asked if she had spoken to GetUp! about keeping the campaign clean, she added: “I don’t have anything to do with GetUp! so I’m not speaking to them.”

GetUp! will replace the commercial, to be screened in cinemas, with a “more literal” version featuring footage of Mr Abbott joking with Peter Dutton about “water lapping at (the) door” of the Pacific Islands due to rising sea levels”.

It said it would “better accomplish” its goal.

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