For an organisation renowned for its tedious, self-important thundering about the need for more transparency in Canberra, left-wing pressure group GetUp is curiously opaque.
GetUp has seen far better days.Credit: John Shakespeare
After CBD got wind of mass redundancies at the organisation, GetUp spent most of Tuesday obfuscating, before failing to respond by deadline.
Embarrassing details about GetUp’s descent into impotence are equally hard to find. The “transparency” section of its website doesn’t even list an annual report more recent than 2020-21. You have to do a bit more Googling to find the most recent financials, which point to a dramatic $2.1 million loss.
GetUp’s decline – from an organisation that once sent conservative politicians and pundits into apoplectic fits of rage, to an outfit barely relevant enough for this column – really began with the 2019 election.
Guided by the way too many Sydney University debaters on staff, GetUp spent donors’ money on a spectacularly hubristic attempt to unseat Peter Dutton in the suburban Brisbane seat of Dickson, and its other target campaigns were similarly futile.
At the last election, many of GetUp’s bourgeois bohemian would-be donors preferred Climate 200 and the teal independents, a clear source of GetUp’s current financial malaise.
National Director Paul Oosting departed after the last election, and while Larissa Baldwin now has chief executive duties, the national director role still hasn’t been filled. Oosting is now chief growth officer at Acacia Money, a start-up that helps consumers move to greener mortgage or super providers.
Meanwhile, the trolls at Advance Australia, who emerged in an attempt to create a “conservative GetUp”, have probably eclipsed their progressive rivals for relevance, owing to their leading position in the campaign against an Indigenous Voice to parliament.
That’s gotta hurt the most.
LANE SWITCH
Chinese-owned social media apps are proving a bit of a minefield for our MPs. While there’s no better way to speak to zoomers than via TikTok, anything with roots in the Middle Kingdom is now seen squarely through the lens of national security threat.
Politicians are quitting TikTok in droves over fears about data security, while WeChat, China’s social media platform of choice, has been considered risky ever since Beijing managed to block former PM Scott Morrison’s account last year.
But new state Liberal MP for Ryde Jordan Lane has taken a different approach, opening an account on Xiaohongshu, which literally translates as “Little Red Book”. Apparently, it’s China’s answer to Instagram.
Mostly used by shopaholic young women in China’s cities, Xiaohongshu hasn’t quite freaked out the national security narcs the way TikTok has just yet. But it has gotten financial backing from parent company Tencent, and was recently revealed to have censored posts critical of Xi Jinping and the CCP.
Lane, whose account is operated by members of his team through private devices, told CBD the move was all about taking a risk and engaging new audiences.
“We’re getting positive feedback from younger and diverse cohorts MPs normally wouldn’t engage with,” he said.
Given Lane’s electorate has a particularly high Chinese-Australian population, it’s probably worth a crack, even if some of his more hawkish colleagues in federal parliament might get spooked.
COTTON OFF
Some of CBD’s more mature readers might recall the Fine Cotton Affair of 1984, a tremendous ring-in scam that shook the world of racing, where con artists made a brazen attempt at subbing an average racehorse with a faster doppelgänger.
When that look-alike was injured, the scammers had to take a third horse and smear it, rather unconvincingly, with white dye. Even in those simpler, analogue days, the rort quickly fell apart.
This week, merchant banker Ian Murray, a renowned punter and a key protagonist in the Fine Cotton affair, died at age 88.
Murray bet big sums of money on Fine Cotton at the behest of racing identity Robbie Waterhouse, who was sidelined from racetracks for almost two decades for his role in the scandal.
Murray later fled to Tasmania, where he was tracked down by John Shreck, the administrator in charge of an inquiry into the sorry affair. A ban from race meets didn’t stop Murray heading to London, where he found continued success in the worlds of business and punting.
HERE WE GO AGAIN
Mamamia, the women’s media juggernaut of eastern suburbs personality Mia Freedman, has defied the odds against smaller media operators and endured, sustained by a cadre of cult followers loyal to its podcasts.
But the site’s editors have not shown much longevity. Author and journalist Elfy Scott was unveiled as Mamamia’s new editor in February. But now Scott has taken a step back into the position of executive editor, a part-time role of which Mamamia has at least five.
Scott didn’t elaborate further on the reshuffle, beyond telling CBD she was excited to be working with the executive editor’s team.
Meanwhile, we’re breathlessly awaiting the release of Strife, the silver screen adaptation of Freedman’s riches to riches journey, which, as CBD reported, is being produced by Harvey Weinstein’s former lawyer Steve Hutensky.
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