On the last Saturday of November in 2009 Christopher Pyne made a phone call to Simon Sheikh, then national director of the activist group GetUp! Pyne’s request was simple but unexpected. Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership was in trouble, and he was hoping GetUp! might help do numbers for him.
“He complained that conservative organisations, particularly the Australian Christian Lobby, were contacting MPs to advocate support for Abbott,” Sheikh says. “He asked if I could organise for people to email or call MPs in support of Turnbull.”
The revelation comes as the government steps up its attacks on GetUp!, with the push for them to be deemed an “associated entity” of a political party, writes Mike Seccombe.
Plus: Paul Bongiorno on Nick Xenophon’s exit, Karen Middleton on the NBN and Martin McKenzie-Murray on Victoria’s euthanasia bill.
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The Saturday Paper
