GetUp! should admit it is just a left-wing activist organisation, acting for the benefit of the Greens and Labor, rather than falsely claiming to be “independent” and “non-partisan”.
This morning on 2CC in Canberra, GetUp! Campaigns Director and spokesman, Sam Maclean, as good as said this:
INTERVIEWER: So would it be fair to say, rather than say you’re a progressive organisation, a progressive thinking organisation, to say that you’re a left-leaning organisation?
MACLEAN: I wouldn’t use the term but I can. Yeah, it would be fair enough to say that the campaigns that GetUp! members focus on tend to be ones that are traditionally left leaning issues…
In the previous breath Maclean said it was: “no surprise that on those sorts of issues the Greens do tend to sit better than for example the Coalition.”
Senator Abetz said that rather than using the euphemism ‘progressive’, GetUp! should just disclose that it is a left-wing organisation, designed to funnel votes to the Greens and Labor.
This latest concession by Sam Maclean follows revelations that:
• ‘Progressive’ unions contributed over $1m to GetUp! for the election campaign.
• Former GetUp! board member, Cate Faehrmann, recently succeeded Lee Rhiannon as a Greens member of the NSW Legislative Council
• Current GetUp! board member and major benefactor, Anne Coombs, admitted that GetUp! invested such extraordinary effort and passion into defeating the Coalition government….
Senator Abetz said he had asked the Australian Electoral Commission whether GetUp! should be considered an ‘associated entity’ acting for the benefit of the Greens and Labor and that he would be revisiting this issue at Senate Estimates.
