GetUp! refuses to disclose links with Labor and Greens

GetUp! has defied a warning from the Australian Electoral Commission to lodge a disclosure return.

Ron Merkel QC has been engaged by GetUp! Picture: Stuart McEvoy

Activist group GetUp! has engaged a leading barrister after defying a warning from the Australian Electoral Commission to lodge a disclosure return as an ­“associated entity” of Labor and the Greens.

GetUp! has taken on the services of Ron Merkel QC and law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, and confirmed it was ­advised by the AEC in June that failure to provide disclosure by October 20 could be deemed as a “serious criminal offence”.

Coalition MPs are pushing for the government to amend the Electoral Act to ensure politically active groups such as GetUp! are subject to the tougher disclosure rules of “associated entities”.

A GetUp! spokesman yesterday said that on June 29, the AEC “encouraged” GetUp! to disclose as an “associated entity” to avoid being pursued for a criminal ­offence.

GetUp! confirmed it had ­refused to comply with the advice to make the declaration.

Independent Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie, who describes himself as a supporter of GetUp!, yesterday argued the group had “become a political organisation” and warned it not to flout the findings of the AEC.

“GetUp! can’t have it both ways,” Mr Wilkie told ABC radio. “They can’t on one hand campaign for better governance, better public policy, they can’t campaign for political candidates, they can’t campaign for an end to political donations but then say they are different and they shouldn’t be covered by any reform.”

GetUp! emailed its supporters last week warning that the AEC preliminary review seemed “stacked against us, with cherry­picked facts and twisted legal ­interpretations” and flagged the prospect of being hit with penalties as it asked for $12 donations.

A GetUp! spokesman yesterday said: “The AEC does not make public comment via the media on correspondence it may or may not have with individuals or entities regarding financial disclosure matters for privacy reasons.”

Third parties such as GetUp! need to disclose income that only relates to political spending over the donation threshold — set at $13,200 for 2016-17 — but not funds that go towards other ­administrative expenses used in campaigns such as staff, rent, ­vehicle and travel costs. Organisations that provide funds to third parties also do not have to fill in a donor return identifying the original source of the donation.

West Australian Liberal MP Ben Morton — whose questions at a parliamentary committee last November instigated the AEC examination of GetUp! — yesterday said the government should take action to impose tougher ­obligations on third parties.

“The government should amend the Electoral Act to ensure that third parties — particularly those whose activities are so political like GetUp! — operate in a more transparent disclosure system,” he said.

“If the AEC can’t apply greater transparency to GetUp! the government must amend the Electoral Act.”

GetUp! has already sought to ­defend itself by making an ­“additional financial disclosure” to the joint standing committee on electoral matters in line with the obligations of an “associated ­entity”.

Defending GetUp!’s independence yesterday, the group’s ­national director, Paul Oosting, told Sky News it had talked to more moderate Liberal MPs such as Craig Laundy to strike a policy alignment on issues such as refugee and clean energy policy, opting not to hand out how-to-vote cards against them.

“In the situation of Craig Laundy, we have been in touch with him just as we have been with a whole range of MPs,’’ Mr Oosting said.