GetUp! warns members ‘we could be next’ target of AFP raids

GetUp! has warned members it could be raided by the AFP because of a “twisted investigation” into its “independent” status.

Left-wing activist group GetUp! has written to its members today warning that it could be the next target of an Australian Federal Police raid because of a “twisted investigation” into its status as an independent organisation.

In the email -- signed off by National Director Paul Oosting -- the group warns the AFP “could knock on our door seizing computers, phones and files, effectively disrupting critical campaigns on corporate tax cheats, the Reef and social justice.”

The group is asking supporters to “chip in $12” to help “protect against the government’s strong-arm tactics to stifle dissent” as it faces the possibility of being reclassified as an “associated entity” of Labor and the Greens.

The email comes on the heels of yesterday’s AFP raids on the Victorian and national offices of the Australian Workers’ Union -- a raid authorised as part of an investigation by the Registered Organisations Commission into whether donations from the union to GetUp! in 2006 were properly approved.

“Our lawyers warn we could be next,” the e-mail says. “Due to a very separate, but equally twisted investigation into GetUp’s independence, pushed by Senator Eric Abetz and the hard right.”

“At the behest of a government agency, the AFP could knock on our door — seizing computers, phones and files, effectively disrupting critical campaigns on corporate tax cheats, the Reef and social justice.”

“It’s part of a disturbing pattern of this government abusing power to silence its critics. They defund scientists and the ABC, bully the Human Rights Commissioner, sack independent experts, attack charities – and now use the police and government agencies to intimidate.”

“Chip in $12 to help protect against the government’s strong-arm tactics to stifle dissent.”

On October 22, GetUp! wrote to supporters informing them that an Australian Electoral Commission preliminary review of the group’s independent status posed the “greatest threat” to the organisation in its short history.

It also sought contributions from supports to help pay for lawyers to “protect our power as an independent movement -- all the way to court if necessary.”

“The AEC’s preliminary review seems stacked against us, with cherry-picked facts and twisted legal interpretations,” it warned. “Dutton and Abetz have the power and resources of the federal government at their disposal. Can you make sure we have the legal resources we need to fight back?”

Tasmanian Liberal Senator Eric Abetz said the most recent e-mail from GetUp smacked of desperation and verged on the comedic.

“These continued suggestions that there is some convoluted conspiracy involving the AEC, AFP, ROC & the Magistrates Court -- that are all somehow working at my behest -- would be comedic if it wasn’t so insulting to those highly independent and professional agencies and individuals,” he said.

Special Minister of State Scott Ryan also used a Senate estimates hearing last night to attack GetUp! for questioning the integrity of the Australian Electoral Commission and importing the “downsides of Americanised democracy” into the Australian political system.

“It is rare despite this being a robust area of public policy for a significant actor in the system to effectively accuse the AEC of acting on a government agenda,” he said. “I have not seen that before in my nearly ten years here… And quite frankly if we want to head down the path of what I might say are some of the downsides of Americanised democracy where people impugn the motives, managed and actions of an independent election regulator of which this country should be proud, then we are setting a new low bar.”