Election 2022: GetUp, Climate 200 gunning for moderates

Left-wing activist group GetUp will join Climate 200 in campaigning against the government in three electorates held by moderate Liberals in Melbourne and Sydney.

Simon Holmes a Court. Picture: Aaron Francis

Left-wing activist group GetUp will join Climate 200 in campaigning against the government in three electorates held by moderate Liberals in Melbourne and Sydney, including Josh Frydenberg’s blue-ribbon seat of Kooyong.

The Liberal MPs being targeted by GetUp already face challenges from independent candidates backed by the Climate 200 group founded by Simon Holmes a Court. Victorian Liberal Tim Wilson faces a threat from former ABC journalist Zoe Daniel in his seat of Goldstein, held on a margin of 7.8 per cent, while the Treasurer’s margin of 6.40 per cent in Kooyong is being challenged by prominent Melbourne neurologist Monique Ryan.

In Sydney, Liberal MP Jason Falinski will face-off against ­another of the “teal independents”, with GP Sophie Scamps trying to steal the seat of Mackellar held by the government on a margin of 13.2 per cent.

The Australian has previously revealed that three Climate 200 candidates – Ms Scamps in Mackellar, Allegra Spender in Wentworth and Kylea Tink in North Sydney – have used the services of a GetUp-affiliated communications firm, The Populares Agency.

But GetUp will broaden its campaign, focusing on a further eight seats that could determine the fate of the election, and promote the need for stronger action on climate change, Indigenous rights, health and housing equity.

It will run against the government in electorates it says have been on the “frontline of the climate crisis”, including the fire- and flood-affected NSW Labor-held seats of Macquarie, Eden-Monaro and Gilmore held on margins of 0.2 per cent, 0.8 per cent and 2.6 per cent respectively.

The northern NSW electorate of Page, held by Nationals MP Kevin Hogan on 9.4 per cent, is also a target of the left-wing campaigning group.

GetUp election co-director ­Larissa Baldwin accused Scott Morrison of neglecting flood and bushfire-affected communities as well as Indigenous Australians.

“The Morrison government has let people down,” she said. “From the bushfires, drought and floods to the pandemic, the government acted to protect itself and its wealthy donors, and left people to fend for themselves in times of national crisis,” she said.

“Right now we have people across the country still living in temporary housing after the bushfires, and are evacuating from floods a second time. They feel let down by the absent leadership of this government.

“GetUp is backing the people the Morrison government refuses to listen to.”

Another seat where GetUp will dedicate resources is Lingiari in the Northern Territory, which is being vacated by well-known Labor MP Warren Snowdon. The seat, which Labor holds by 5.5 per cent, is viewed as a possible gain by Coalition strategists, with the government running former Alice Springs mayor Damien Ryan.

The north Queensland seat of Leichhardt, held by veteran ­Coalition MP Warren Entsch on 4.2 per cent, and the rural NSW seat of Parkes, held by Nationals MP Mark Coulton on a margin of 16.9 per cent, are also being singled out by GetUp.

The activist group argues that, in Lingiari, Leichhardt and Parkes, voters are disappointed at the government’s record on housing, health, drought and fracking – ­including First Nations com­munities.

Ms Baldwin said GetUp on Monday hosted “two snap community election barbecue rallies” in Goldstein and Leichhardt.

“We’re mobilising our members and volunteers to get out the vote, hold conversations with voters, friends and neighbours, put up yard signs, organise local events, chip in for billboards, and turn out on polling day in key seats across the country,” she said.

“You can’t leave politics to politicians who are acting in the best interests of their corporate mates, or are held hostage by climate ­deniers in their own party. From now until election day, we’ll be holding the Morrison government accountable for the people it has abandoned.”