Left-wing group GetUp orchestrates bid to unseat high-profile conservatives

GetUp has developed a “spine’’ of connections to independents who will run as Liberal-lite candidates in the federal election.

Julia Banks will run against Health Minister Greg Hunt in the seat of Flinders. Picture: Kym Smith

The left-wing pressure group targeting government figures including Tony Abbott and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has developed a “spine” of connections to independents who will run as Liberal-lite candidates in the federal election.

GetUp yesterday declared its hand by vowing to canvass every home in Mr Abbott’s Sydney electorate of Warringah to unseat the former prime minister.

A “doorknocking resource” obtained by The Australianprimes volunteers to fan resentment against Mr Abbott.

The well-worn spiel has been used through the past two election cycles to bring down prominent conservatives such as outspoken former Liberal frontbencher Sophie Mirabella, whose loss in 2013 to independent Cathy McGowan in the country Victoria seat of Indi established a template for the get-Abbott push and challenges to Josh Frydenberg, Health Minister Greg Hunt and former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce.

In Mr Dutton’s northern Brisbane seat of Dickson, GetUp says it will doorknock 20,000 homes and fund 120,000 calls to voters from a phone bank of volunteers, dovetailing with Labor’s heavily resourced campaign to take out a future leadership option for the Liberals.

“GetUp is the spine and nervous system for all these campaigns targeting senior Liberals,” said Gerard Benedet of Advance Australia, conservative politics’ answer to the Labor-aligned activist group.

 

The scripted talking points in Warringah leave no room for adlibbing by the big contingent of doorknockers GetUp is assembling to canvass 64,000 homes across the wealthy electorate, spanning Sydney’s lower north shore and northern beaches. Hundreds signed on at a GetUp meeting at the Manly Pavilion on Wednesday night.

Volunteers will be told to connect with voters hostile to Mr ­Abbott by describing how he “negatively impacted a compassionate value in my life” and fed language to promote one of the independent challengers.

They will even be coached on how to frame their “story”.

In urging a vote against Mr Abbott at the probable May poll, the doorknockers will say: “I see this election as an opportunity (to) raise our standards and vote out politicians who don’t act on the values we care about. If there was a candidate stronger on [x value], would you consider voting against them instead of Abbott?”

If the answer is yes, the scripted follow-up is to say: “OK, great. We recommend that you have a close look at some of the independent candidates who nominate to challenge Tony Abbott.”

The most prominent of them, Winter Olympian-turned-barrister Zali Steggall, has touted her family’s Liberal voting record while styling herself as a believer in the “sensible centre”. She has come out for stronger action on climate change — lining up with Labor, the Greens and GetUp — and backs leniency for asylum-seekers on Nauru and Manus Island as advocated by newly elected independent MP Kerryn Phelps, the successor to Malcolm Turnbull in formerly blue-ribbon Wentworth in Sydney’s east.

She has said she will ­accept help from GetUp in Warringah.

Mr Abbott declined to buy in yesterday, with a spokesman citing his previous comments that independents going after safe Liberal seats were “basically Labor candidates in disguise”.

Mr Dutton lashed out at GetUp, telling The Australian: “They are a left-wing extremist group affiliated with the Greens and they con money out of people by pretending to be middle of the road. They don’t support any Liberal candidate — only Labor and Green candidates — and of course they will use tricky deals to run ­independent candidates.”

Former Liberal MP Julia Banks, who went to the crossbench after Mr Turnbull was torn down by supporters of Mr Dutton in a partyroom coup last August, yesterday announced she had “unfinished business” in politics and would run against Mr Hunt in Flinders, south of Melbourne.

GetUp is a common thread in the campaigns of the Liberal-lite independents, providing resources as well as expertise. Former Liberal Party identity and founding boss of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation Oliver Yates, gunning for the Treasurer in his Melbourne seat of Kooyong, is advised by one-time GetUp media director Adrian Dodd, who also served as a communications adviser to the ACTU.

Mr Yates has contracted digital agency Code Nation, which explicitly tells clients it does “not work with conservatives”. GetUp, Greens MPs Adam Bandt and Jenny Leong and Sydney’s leftwing Lord Mayor Clover Moore are among Code Nation’s clients.

Ms Steggall has brought on board political consultant Damien Hodkinson, an important behind-the-scenes figure in Dr Phelps’s successful campaign for Wentworth last October. His company, DEM Australasia, provides back-office services including budgeting and electoral law compliance.

Ms Steggall’s emergence as a candidate was trumpeted by a comprehensive media campaign and digital strategy carefully noted by senior Liberals. “Only Labor and GetUp have those kind of resources,” one strategist said. Her website is powered by US campaign software NationBuilder, a sophisticated tool used by organisations such as the ACTU and the Business Council of Australia.