GetUp!

Australian political activist group
an Australian activist organisation

GetUp! is an independent progressive Australian political activist group. It was launched in August 2005 to encourage Internet activism in Australia, though it has increasingly engaged in offline community organising. GetUp! is an independent, issue based organisation. It advocates for progressive public policy change in Australia in the areas of the environment, economy, human rights, and democracy. GetUp does not make financial donations to, or receive donations from, registered Australian political parties, and does not run or fund candidates at Australian elections.

GetUp is a non profit organisation, registered as GetUp Ltd.

Founding members includeDavid Madden and Jeremy Heimans, co founders of international activist groups Avaaz, Purpose, and Win Back Respect; and Amanda Tattersall, co founder of Labor for Refugees and the Sydney Alliance, and is an associate professor at Sydney University. the chair of GetUp was Phil Ireland, managing director of the Online Progressive Engagement Network, while deputy chair was Carla McGrath, a campaigner on Torres Strait Islander issues. Other members of the board were Daniel Stone, director of digital campaign firm Principle Co; Min Guo, a barrister specialising in class actions, human rights and immigration; Stephen Monk, an IT entrepreneur, consultant and software developer; Karen Iles, a human rights lawyer; Sara Saleh, a racial justice and Palestine campaigner; Alex Rafalowicz, a communications manager at 350. org; and Lyn Goldsworthy, executive officer at the Frank Fenner Foundation and environmental activist. as of August 2023, Larissa Baldwin Roberts is CEO of GetUp. She is Widjabul Wia bul woman of the Bundjalung people, and was previously campaign manager. She had also worked internationally, is an expert on the gas industry in Australia, and co founded Seed Mob, the first Indigenous youth climate network.

In 2007 the Australian Electoral Commission warned GetUp! that it felt its how to vote website was "misleading and deceptive", because it always recommended against voting for Coalition candidates, since the Coalition did not provide information to GetUp for inclusion in the online tool. In 2010, GetUp! placed full page ads in The New York Times and The Washington Times in support of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and condemning calls for violence against him. In 2011, GetUp! campaigned to create a permanent Climate Natural Disaster Fund funded by reduction of fossil fuel subsidies and released a video supporting same sex marriage in Australia, starring Julian Shaw entitled It's Time that was described by The Advocate as "possibly the most beautiful ad for marriage equality we've seen". In March 2011, Getup! endorsed the controversial decision of the Gillard Labor government to break its 2010 Election promise not to introduce a carbon tax as a means of addressing Australia's contribution to carbon emissions. In 2012 GetUp! campaigned with Australian Marriage Equality for same sex marriage by sending 3,000 roses to federal politicians on Valentines Day and by hosting a dinner for three same sex couples with the Prime Minister. GetUp! also had a Marriage Matters float in the Sydney Mardi Gras. In Queensland, GetUp! commissioned a response to a controversial anti gay marriage advertisement. In response to Catholic bishops in Victoria asking their parishioners to campaign against same sex marriages, Simon Sheikh of GetUp! said, "every time they act, they only entice our members to do even more". In May 2012, "GetUp slams PM Gillard" for not following the lead of President Obama on marriage equity. In June 2012, at events in Sydney and Melbourne, GetUp! joined with Marie Claire and Sunrise to show support for marriage equality and "everybody's right to say 'I Do'". In August 2015, emergency services were called to the office of Craig Laundy MP, a federal Liberal party member who blocked a free vote on same sex marriage. Mr. Laundy was one of a number of MPs who received an envelope containing glitter from the organization, as a protest to the dissents. Laundy later called it a "stupid stunt". During the 2016 federal election GetUp! ran a successful campaign targeting the Coalition's more conservative MPs. Part of the campaign involved volunteers calling voters in marginal electorates. 45,000 conversations were had with 18,000 of these being with voters in Bass which was the seat of Andrew Nikolic who was not reelected. Other targeted MPs included Peter Dutton, George Christensen and Louise Markus. In November 2016 in a submission to a parliamentary inquiry, GetUp! lobbied for information on all political donations over $500 to be made publicly available and also advocated for a ban on foreign donations to Australian political parties. In August 2017, a campaign was started on GetUp! 's community campaign platform CommunityRun calling on the Australian Medical Association to deregister Dr Pansy Lai, following her appearance in the TV ad for the "No" case for the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey. GetUp! received dozens of complaints and the petition, and it was taken down after being found to breach CommunityRun's terms and conditions. In September 2017, GetUp campaigned for same sex marriage ahead of the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey, which was successful. During the 2019 Australian federal election, GetUp campaigned against a number of "hard right" MPs, including Tony Abbott and Peter Dutton. GetUp was reported to have spent up to $4 million on election advertising (mostly focused on specific seats) and distributed 800,000 how to vote cards in support of key independents, Labor, and the Greens. Paul Oosting said GetUp volunteers made 712,039 calls to voters and knocked on 36,315 doors during the campaign. Following the election, GetUp! claimed credit for defeating Tony Abbott. The campaign was widely seen as unsuccessful; Paul Oosting said that GetUp “hadn't achieved what we set out to achieve,” and GetUp's campaign received criticism from both sides of politics.

GetUp uses "membership surveys, voter polls [and] phone and online consultations" to help determine campaign priorities. The organisation's 2015 survey showed GetUp members wanted the organisation to campaign on refugees, fossil fuels and climate change, and coal developments near the Great Barrier Reef. In 2019, 92% of respondents to GetUp's annual survey wanted the organisation to "target hard right MPs who block progress." Almost 30,000 people responded to a subsequent online poll organised by GetUp to identify which "hard right" MPs they wanted to target at the 2019 federal election. Critics allege that the organisation misrepresents results of their membership surveys. Liberal Party MP Ben Morton has claimed that raw data from the organisation's 2016 election survey, disclosed to the Australian Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, showed that respondents had nominated different priorities to those that the organisation eventually campaigned on. The group listed "stopping the government handling over billions of dollars every year to big polluters" in its top three issues, yet the survey results did not reflect this. GetUp states that it is driven by the values and issues of its supporters, fully independent of party loyalties. The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has found that GetUp is "issue based rather than supporting or advocating support for a particular registered party political." Its independent status has been confirmed by the AEC on three occasions. On each occasion, the AEC's review was initiated at the request of a conservative MP; following referrals by Senator Abetz in 2005 and 2010, and a referral from Ben Morton in 2016. On all three occasions, the AEC found that GetUp did "not appear to be controlled by one or more registered political parties, nor to operate wholly or to a significant extent to the benefit of one or more registered political parties."

Due to the party's focus on progressive issues, getup has been criticised by many members of conservative parties, particularly the Coalition parties. Liberal Party of Australia politicians Eric Abetz, Ben Morton, and Peter Dutton have regularly attacked GetUp's independence since the organisation's effective 2016 election campaign, at various times claiming that the organisation is a "front for the Labor Party", "run by the Greens movement in inner city Melbourne and Sydney", and funded by billionaire George Soros. Following the 2019 Australian federal election, Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce criticised GetUp for their unsuccessful campaign in his seat of New England, a very safe seat for the party. In his victory speech, Joyce called GetUp "completely and utterly dopey".