GetUp blames ‘big money’ ad blitzes for its failure to unseat MPs

GetUp blames ‘big money’ ad blitzes for drowning out ‘ordinary Australians’ at the May election.

GetUp has blamed Clive Palmer for its failure to gain traction at the May election. Picture: Tara Croser.

GetUp has blamed “big money” campaign advertising blitzes headlined by Clive Palmer for the “voices of ordinary Australians” being drowned at the May 18 election amid an internal review into its failure to unseat conservative MPs.

In its submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Election Matters inquiry into the federal election, published on the committee website on Thursday, the left-wing group defended its “independence” and said accusations it was aligned with political parties were false.

GetUp, accused by the Coalition of running misleading campaigns, also pushes for a crackdown on “disinformation” suggesting that “political actors must be held accountable for disseminating misleading material”.

The activist outfit, which has launched internal and external reviews examining its election campaign strategy, has come under attack from Scott Morrison and senior Coalition MPs who have labelled the left-wing group a front for Labor and the Greens.

The Prime Minister last month warned GetUp his government would revisit their claim that they are “politically independent”.

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In its JSCEM submission, titled “Taking back our Democracy”, GetUp said “big money” had influenced the result of the election.

GetUp claimed the election “saw big money play a more significant role than ever before as Australia shifted to US-style campaigning”, singling out “billionaires like Clive Palmer” who drowned out opponents through “unprecedented campaign spending”.

“This election was the most expensive on record, with spending by major parties believed to be higher than ever. However both the Coalition and Labor (and the Greens, One Nation, Centre Alliance and everyone else) were outspent by Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party.

“This meant that the voices of ordinary Australians were often drowned out. GetUp and its members have long advocated for an end to the influence of big money in our politics. The 2019 election was the direct result of the failure to take action against big money.”

GetUp’s submission lists a five-point plan to “rebuild our democracy”, including a push to cap donations and introduce expenditure caps on election campaigns.

Getup! National Director Paul Oosting at the National Press Club on Wednesday. Picture: AAP.

They also call for a lowering of the threshold for donation disclosure, enforcing a real-time disclosure system, the creation of a federal corruption watchdog, preventing departing MPs from engaging in lobby work for a period of three years and a crackdown on “disinformation”.

“While upholding the principle of Freedom of Speech, political actors must be held accountable for disseminating misleading material,” GetUp’s submission said.

Detailing its activity during the campaign, GetUp said 9433 volunteers provided 37,404 hours of volunteer time, 3595 volunteers handed out how to vote cards at 335 polling booths and 16,768 members took their “first GetUp action”.

They claim credit for Tony Abbott’s defeat, with its members dispatched to knock on “more doors in Warringah than any other target seat to ensure his outdated views were no longer influencing our parliament”.

GetUp – for the first time - also targeted remote “First Nations” communities and campaigned in multicultural electorates “working in languages other than English”.

The radical activist movement confirmed it used its donation pool to fund billboards, multimedia advertising, social media campaigns, phone calling, door knocking and printing 800,000 issue-based How-to-Vote cards”.

Pushing back against claims it was working with political parties, GetUp said “nothing could be further from the truth”.

“We’re fiercely independent and proud of it but don’t just take it from us – the AEC has investigated GetUp three times and every single time confirmed our independence and that we are not associated with any political party,” the submission says.

The left-wing group also said the AEC had found its campaigns were “100 per cent issues based”, played an “important role” on election day, did not receive funding from political parties and was “nonpartisan”.

“GetUp is guided by a Statement of Independence which defines us as an active values-led participant in our politics, independent from the control, direction or influence of political parties and politicians.”

The group said under current electoral laws, their disclosure requirements were on par with political parties and associated entities and that they took “additional voluntary steps” to impose a lower threshold for disclosing large gifts and “real time disclosure of all income”.

“GetUp’s donations are transparent, and while it certainly throws us open to scrutiny, the fact is it’s the standard that all political players should meet.”

The submission says they are 95 per cent funded by small contributions under $100 but “time from time we receive a larger gift”.

“Like any independent third-party organisation, GetUp is required by law to disclose the identity of any donors who give over $13,800 for election purposes in a financial year.”

“These disclosures, however, take up to 18-months – and we believe democracy should be more transparent than that. We publish the details of all donations over $10,000 on our website within 30 days of receiving them.”

GetUp said under new electoral laws, they no longer accepted donations from foreign entities for electoral matters”.

“Prior to that (the law changes), donations from foreign entities amounted to less than 1.1 per cent of GetUp’s donations.”