Lib MP Craig Laundy defends dealings with GetUp!

Lib MP Craig Laundy says his involvement never helped him with a single campaign worker, dollar or how-to-vote card.

Member for Reid Craig Laundy has defended his dealing with GetUp!. Picture: Ray Strange.

NSW Liberal MP Craig Laundy has defended his engagement with activist group GetUp!, saying it never helped him with a single campaign worker, dollar or how-to-vote card.

Mr Laundy, who has come under scrutiny after GetUp! confirmed it “ran dead” in his Reid electorate, argued his dealings with the group involved making representations on behalf of ­asylum-seekers brought to his ­attention by GetUp! members.

He said his past as a publican and his “faith” meant he would lobby on behalf of anyone, no ­matter what background.

The defence comes as speculation mounted over whether Liberal Party operatives acted behind the scenes to prevent moderate MPs from being targeted by GetUp! at last year’s election.

The office of senior government minister Christopher Pyne yesterday issued a statement denying he was involved in any talks with GetUp!. “The minister hasn’t spoken to GetUp! since 2009,” a spokesman for Mr Pyne said. “The allegations re the 2016 election are completely false.”

Mr Laundy, the Assistant Industry Minister, yesterday said GetUp! workers were in force in Reid in 2013 and last year and were handing out policy flyers, most of which were at odds with the government.

Liberal MP Craig Laundy. Picture: Kym Smith.

He noted a large GetUp! sign opposing Malcolm Turnbull and Pauline Hanson on changes to 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act remains in his electorate. But GetUp! national director Paul Oosting told Sky News this week: “There was some policy alignment with the moderate faction so there were a number of seats in which GetUp! members didn’t hand out how-to-vote cards.”

South Australian senator and leading Liberal moderate Simon Birmingham yesterday defended Mr Pyne from accusations he ­colluded with GetUp! last year as well as separate claims he sought to undermine Liberal MP Tony Pasin at the 2013 election.

“Rumours and gossip spread around political parties a lot of the time, much of it is untrue, it is being denied by Christopher Pyne,” Senator Birmingham told Sky News.

“I know that Christopher Pyne has worked hard for the election of every Liberal candidate in the country, that he works particularly in South Australia to fundraise, to mobilise the troops in the party (and) to make sure we run campaigns.”

The Australian yesterday revealed that a formal complaint had been lodged with the South Australian division of the party ­requesting the state executive ­investigate allegations Mr Pyne had asked Wattle Range Mayor Peter Gandolfi to run as an independent against Mr Pasin in the electorate of Barker.

Mr Laundy said that after last year’s election he saw his GetUp! asylum-seeker contact, Shen Narayanasamy, in order to lobby the organisation to stop campaigning against the government’s policy on cutting corporate tax.

It was then that Mr Oosting introduced him to all the GetUp! staff. “From 2013 ... I have had six or seven meetings in my electorate office,” Mr Laundy said. “Normally, they would meet me on asylum-seekers. They would see me as an empathetic MP (on those ­issues) voicing concerns.”