GetUp! Annual Report 2014

About UsBack to Top

The GetUp CommunityBack to Top

working towards a better, fairer, more sustainable Australia

Vision Survey

Top 3 Issues as rated by GetUp members.

CampaignsBack to Top

Climate Action

Climate change consistently rates as the #1 issue for GetUp members.
It is both urgent and important; a campaign we’ve been fighting to win for far too long considering we have such little time left in which to turn things around. This year the GetUp community not only helped deliver record numbers on the ground, we also started to pave the way for innovative tactics that have the potential to move millions of dollars out of climate destruction.

On November 17, a staggering 60,000 of us came together in 130 beautiful events across the country for GetUp’s National Day of Climate Action. We created news headlines across the country, with ABC, SBS, 9, 10, SKY, WIN, and 7 all covering the rallies. Our movement had in fact pulled off one of the largest rallies for climate action in Australia's history - earning the title of 'Abbott's Worst Enemy' for our work in climate activism.

The national rallies were attended by a broad cross-section of society: with religious figures, young activists and politicians standing shoulder to shoulder with firefighters and farmers. Supporters ranged from the very young to grandmothers and grandfathers in their nineties, rallying on behalf of future generations. Some of the most outstanding efforts were from GetUp members in regional areas, where hundreds of people gathered in small towns around the country.  Regional and country Australia's contribution was a tremendous part of what made the National Day of Climate Action so great. When our politicians turned on the evening news that day, one of the first things they heard was that GetUp members and residents in over 130 towns were demanding government do more to tackle climate change. And when politicians opened their newspapers the next day, they were forced to read the same.

Because of GetUp members in regional and country Australia, tens of thousands of Australians had the opportunity to participate locally in the National Day of Climate Action and contribute to such an important cause. Many of you told GetUp staff that although one person was registered as the organiser, there were lots of people and local organisations who passionately dedicated their time and energy to the organising effort.

All in all, the day garnered more than 140 media articles. Following the events, thousands of GetUp members contributed to fund the ongoing climate campaign. As the first significant mobilisation following the 2013 Election, GetUp members significantly changed the conversation about the Abbott Government’s climate policy and the public mood.

The diverse crowd of the national day of action also helped spawn the launch of Australians for Action, a mini-site which represents the broad community of notable Australians urging our government to take greater, stronger, more ambitious actions on climate change. Ambassadors include some of Australia’s most well-known and respected figures: actors, performers, scientists, TV personalities, business professionals; as well as everyday folk. To date, more than 100,000 people have signed on!

These efforts also paved the way for further climate work, as we turned to focus the Great Barrier Reef, stop coal seam gas and help consumers move their money away from organisations that profit from climate destruction.

People power evolves

Since the Abbott Government came to power in September, the denial and disrespect of climate science has been in the spotlight. Their very first official act was to abolish the Climate Commission, the independent body which advised the Government on climate change; along with removing key ministerial positions on climate change and science and axing hundreds of jobs at the CSIRO. People power has never been more needed.

Partnerships for change

Throughout the year, GetUp members also participated in initiatives from across the environmental movement. In early 2014, GetUp teamed up wth 350.org to urge corporations to do better on climate. GetUp members who are also customers of UniSuper emailed the Board and the National Tertiary Education Union, calling on UniSuper to measure and disclose its fossil fuel exposure, reduce its fossil fuel exposure across all portfolios, and ultimately divest and go fossil free.

Throughout the year, GetUp members also participated in initiatives from across the environmental movement. In early 2014, GetUp teamed up wth 350.org to urge corporations to do better on climate. GetUp members who are also customers of UniSuper emailed the Board and the National Tertiary Education Union, calling on UniSuper to measure and disclose its fossil fuel exposure, reduce its fossil fuel exposure across all portfolios, and ultimately divest and go fossil free.

In November 2013, 12,724 members made submissions to the Climate Change Authority – a whopping 99.9% of the total submissions. The resulting report called for an overhaul of expectations – including a 19% stronger emissions reduction target by 2020, and 40%-60% by 2030.

In January 2014, 14,585 members expressed their views on the Direct Action plan through a membership survey. The results of the survey shaped GetUp’s contribution to the Senate Inquiry on the Abbott Government's climate policies Direct Action plan.

The following month, the Abbott government announced the panel to conduct the Renewable Energy Target (RET) Review. The review would be headed up by Dick Warburton, a self-confessed climate sceptic, and panellists with significant connections to mining and industry. This offered a key rapid response moment for members to stand up for our nation's renewable energy future. GetUp members were a part of raising serious questions about the Warburton review and its recommendations given Dick Warburton’s climate scepticism and industry connections. Thousands of GetUp members shared content on Facebook, highlighting the farcical appointments.

One day may this serve as an historical document, for our grandchildren to marvel at how hard we had to fight simply to evolve our way of doing business in order to protect the very planet that sustains us. Until then, we’ll keep working.

To find out more about the fight for action on climate change, click here

BACK TO CAMPAIGNS

Great Barrier Reef

This was the year GetUp members made history in the effort to protect our Great Barrier Reef, with campaigning as big as the Reef itself.

When the Federal Government failed to protect the Reef against inappropriate development – approving the construction of the largest coal port terminal in the world inside the Reef’s heritage-listed area – GetUp members stepped up. First, thousands banded together to crowdfund two legal challenges to the approval of dredging and dumping inside the Reef. Then, we helped convince major banks that financing the destruction of the Reef was bad business. Finally, we exposed the utterly disgraceful record of the Indian-owned mining company our Government is so keen to entrust with the future of the Reef.

Five million tonnes sounds like a lot of anything, but when you’re talking about dredge spoil to be dumped on Australia’s most valuable environmental asset, it sounds downright ludicrous.

Yet on January 31, Environment Minister Greg Hunt approved the Abbot Point coal terminal expansion, which would mean massive dredging atnd dumping in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. The resulting coal pollution would cause four times as much pollution as New Zealand (yes, the entire country); and hundreds of coal ships would pass through the Reef every year.  And just to add to the good news, the company behind the project, Indian mining company Adani, has a proven history of environmental destruction, theft and bribery.

GetUp members had already spent the months in the lead-up to the decision lobbying hard with full-page ads, petitions, rallies outside the Minister’s office. So when the decision came down, we knew we had to pull out all the stops.

That’s when 17,500 GetUp members contributed over $300,000 to a citizens' Reef Fighting Fund. The cases are fighting the legality of the Minister’s approval in the courts on two grounds. First, that the decision to allow the dumping of dredge spoil in the World Heritage Area wasn't made in a lawful manner because the environmental assessment carried out was improper. Second, that Minister Hunt failed his obligation to protect the World Heritage Area when he approved the dredging.

We’re funding North Queensland Conservation Council to fight the dumping approval, and Mackay Conservation Group to fight the dredging approval. The Environmental Defenders Office of Queensland will be the lawyers in both cases.

These groups have been fighting to protect our environments on the ground for decades. They have the knowledge, experience and determination required to take these historic cases to the court. We’re proud to support these two groups.

Both developers and government now know they simply can't treat the environment with such blatant disregard, and must now factor litigation into any project known to be environmentally unsound.

Another important way GetUp members fought back to protect the Reef was through undermining the ability of mining companies to attract the investment they needed for the project go ahead.

It started with convincing Deutsche Bank to publicly walk away from the project. GetUp members worked internationally with our German counterpart, Campact, flooding the bank’s Facebook and Twitter accounts and petitioning them directly. The pressure was finally too much when GetUp members chipped in and ran a full page ad in the Financial Times of Europe.  This win was closely followed by two more: with Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland also declaring they wouldn’t back the project after pressure from Melbourne. This has been a game-changer, and investment banks know they now have to take into account potential backlash from citizens and consumers when they invest in irresponsible projects.

Finally, GetUp members made a video explaining the history of Adani -- the Indian-owned mining company with an atrocious human rights and environmental record. It went viral online and was noticed by potential investors across the world.

Then, suddenly, the video disappeared. It appeared that an individual whom has a business relationship with Adani set up a fake website, uploaded our video, and launched a copyright action claiming our video as their own. That means the video was taken down just days after Adani announced it was looking for banks to fund their project.

GetUp worked with lawyers and YouTube to get the video back online. But seeing as we’d hit a nerve, we decided to supercharge the message. GetUp members donated to a sophisticated online, targeted advertising campaign to make sure every potential investor in Adani saw the video. Over four thousand people donated, and the video is being seen by hundreds of thousands across the world.

We then re-uploaded the video to Facebook, and the post has reached over 1.4 million people; and the resulting media coverage drove interest further. It was the most popular story on The Sydney Morning Herald website for much of the day. That night GetUp National Director Sam McLean featured on The Project, and future media investigations would lead to damning stories about Adani.

But we have been here before and we know that this is far from over. Adani and all the others who are happy to profit from the reef’s destruction will not give up without a fight, so the GetUp movement must be ready for whatever comes next in order to save one of Australia’s national treasures.

More about our fight to protect the Great Barrier Reef.

BACK TO CAMPAIGNS

ABC

GetUp members all over the country are deeply passionate about protecting the ongoing funding for our iconic national broadcaster, and have proved it in actions over many years. To date, the petition to keep the ABC free of charge, politically independent, fair and balanced has grown to over a quarter of a million signatures. But over the course of this year, GetUp members have shown their real passion for the national broadcaster by showing up when it matters, and where it counts.

Before the 2013 Election, Tony Abbott made a commitment to make no cuts to the ABC or SBS. Yet, in the face of widely reported rumours that drastic cuts were coming for Australia's national broadcaster in the 2014-15 budget, GetUp members sprung into action for a fierce campaign of public pressure.

In the lead-up to the budget, GetUp members mobilised in a broad and brave campaign, and our efforts paid off. In the 2014-15 budget, the new Abbott Government may have broken their election promise and made cuts to public broadcasting –  axing the Australia Network and cutting funds for ABC and SBS by 1%. Yet, just weeks before budget night, commentators and Coalition members were talking of cuts up to ten times that amount.

Without the extraordinary efforts of GetUp members to intervene in the key decision making period and demonstrating the palpable backlash, the cuts may have been much worse.

We have a proud history of fighting for the ABC, so what did we do this time?

GetUp members targeted key decision makers where they couldn't avoid our messages. We put ads in the paper, and produced a widely shared video featuring Tony Abbott's own words committing to no cuts to the ABC or SBS. Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Prime Minister Tony Abbott both faced giant crowd-funded billboards on arterial roads in their electorate.

GetUp members will continue to rally for the ABC – standing up for fair and balanced reporting, and for the ABC's funding. It's no coincidence that "save our ABC" bumper stickers and the Bananas in Pyjamas are still seen all over Australia!  

Partnerships for change

GetUp members visited their representatives in electorates around the country, marching into electoral offices to deliver copies of our quarter of a million-strong petition. These events were grassroots-organised, by 66 everyday GetUp members who put their hands up to be ABC Champions. They were charged with organising the events logistics, recruiting fellow GetUp members to attend and delivery of the physical petition. In total, these 66 champions we’re able to organise and recruit 1,913 GetUp members to be part of petition delivery events! Prominent figures like Play School’s Benita Collings and journalist Jonathan Holmes joined us in urging our leaders not to undermine the ABC’s incredible that serve so many Australians from the cradle to the grave.

Together, we also formed human signs in the shape of the ABC logo at events in Sydney and Melbourne. Thousands of event attendees wrote their messages to hand-deliver to our politicians in Canberra. Then, on Budget Day, we erected a message that was impossible to miss: a  20-metre tall ABC logo plastered on Parliament Lawns, with the messages from everyday Australians for our politicians, media and fellow citizens to see. Hands off our ABC!

Find out more about the fight to protect the ABC.

BACK TO CAMPAIGNS

Refugees

The 2013 Federal Election was the impetus for significant changes in refugee policy in 2013/2014. Much of the GetUp movement’s campaign efforts focussed around exposing the abhorrent nature of Australia’s offshore processing policy, in response to a government determined to control any information about Australian-run detention centres.

And when asylum-seeker Reza Berati died in our care on Manus Island, more than 20,000 Australians came together to light a candle at more than 750 candlelight vigils around the country.

This year our movement was forced to adapt to increasingly harsher measures by political parties who attempted to appear tough against people smugglers. On 19 July 2013, the then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced the “PNG solution” – billed as a deterrence strategy that would see all asylum seekers who arrived by boat sent to Papua New Guinea. Anyone who arrived after that date would be refused protection in Australia, even if found to be a refugee.

GetUp members voiced their concern about the new so-called ‘hardline’ measures to their MPs, as part of an ongoing campaign to expose the completely inadequate standard of care provided to asylum seekers in detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru.

In the lead up to the federal election, more than 1,000 GetUp members fundraised to air television ads in targeted electorates featuring Lillian, whose Jewish family were welcomed into Australia after fleeing Nazi-occupied Germany during the Second World War.

Eleven days after winning the election, the Abbott Coalition Government implemented one of their key plans to “stop the boats” with the establishment of ‘Operation Sovereign Borders’. This coincided with a media crackdown by the Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, who refused to provide the public information on what he declared were “operational matters”. The Abbott Government also seemed to receive a helping hand in keeping the media at arm’s length: the Nauruan government increased the cost of a journalist visa to a staggering $8,000!

Citizen-funded journalism

In response, more than 4,700 GetUp members funded a citizens’ journalism campaign, to help tell the stories the Abbott Government was so keen to suppress. GetUp established an independent panel to provide these member-funded grants to journalists, made of some of the country’s most respected and experienced journalists, media producers and executives: including Wendy Harmer, Eric Beecher, Monica Attard, Barat Ali Batoor and John Birmingham.

Vigils for Reza Berati

On February 17, 2014, we witnessed what many hoped would be a turning point for our government’s stance on asylum seekers. Violence broke out inside the Manus Island detention centres and 23 year-old Iranian asylum seeker, Reza Berati, was killed. Just three days after news broke of Reza’s death, more than 20,000 Australians came together at more than 750 candlelight vigils around the country. Vigils in capital cities were organised with the invaluable support of groups such as Welcome to Australia, the First Home Project, the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Amnesty International and the Refugee Action Coalition. The resulting media coverage was high-profile and ongoing, as was the conversation on social media.

Can Labor Party Policy be Changed?

On 17 June 2014, GetUp members stood alongside federal Labor MPs Melissa Parke and Anna Burke in calling for a change in the ALP’s policy on asylum seekers. Sadly the Parke and Burke motion was defeated in the party room. Yet 5,993 GetUp members reached out to tell their Labor MPs they want to see them change course on asylum seeker policy.

More information about our fight for a sane, humane approach to asylum seekers.

BACK TO CAMPAIGNS

Coal Seam Gas

Coal seam gas has been another important campaign for the GetUp movement. This year we focused on a critical campaign to protect the Pilliga forest, a vast expanse of bushland, located between Narrabri and Coonabarabran in western NSW, from becoming an industrial coal seam gas field.

After years of insisting CSG projects pose no threat to our water supply, mining company Santos was caught out poisoning an aquifer in the Pilliga Forest. The aquifer is now filled with uranium at 20 times the safe drinking water levels, and has elevated levels of arsenic, lead, aluminium, nickel, barium and boron.

The official consequences for Santos were laughable: a $1500 slap on the wrist. And unbelievably, two days after the fine was issued, the NSW State Government signed an agreement with Santos to fast track additional CSG development in the area. Drilling in the Pilliga is seen as the trojan horse for the spread of industrial gas fields across the NSW North West, including some of the best food producing lands in Australia, the Liverpool Plains.

The mining company Santos are drilling in the Pilliga, with plans to put forward a production application for an alarming 850 wells in the Pilliga to the Federal and State Governments in mid 2014.

After news broke that Santos had contaminated an aquifer with heavy metals including uranium in the Pilliga State Forest, the response was immediate.

43,448 GetUp members from across Australia rallied behind the local community, signing a petition to Santos CEO David Knox calling on him to drop the Narribri CSG project.

161 people then used their power as Santos shareholders to present the petition to the company, in a targeted campaign to stop Santos from the inside out. The shareholder resolution was put together by The Wilderness Society, based on extensive scientific research into the damage Santos has already caused, and the threat their proposed expansion poses to a crucial recharge area of the Great Artesian Basin. Together, we forced a shareholder resolution to abandon the Narribri Gas Project to be put on the agenda of the Santos Annual General Meeting (AGM) for a vote.

Dozens of farmers and Traditional Owners made the journey from northwest NSW to Adelaide for Santos AGM. The stories they told were incredible. As The Australian reported, "for nearly two hours of a four hour meeting, the motion was debated, giving the group of farmers and environmentalists plenty of time to show the board and shareholders the extent of their opposition."

Gomeroi Traditional Owner Deborah Briggs travelled to the AGM to speak for her country and Elders, "I've seen the damage that Santos coal seam gas has done to the Pilliga, the heart of our Gomeroi Nation. Our Elders would walk to the end of the Earth to protect the Pilliga, and I've carried their voices to the Santos AGM to speak against the Narrabri Gas Project."

In the end the resolution got smashed, but all the media coverage was about the protest of people at the meeting. Not long after that, The Australian reported the people’s backlash against the project had stripped $600 million from the value of Santos’ Narribri Gas Project.

In an unambiguous display of community opposition to Santos’ presence in the Narribri, GetUp members also put in an extraordinary fundraising effort to run ads in national newspapers. In just 48 hours, 2260 donors chipped in. The response was so strong our media buyer was not only able to place the ad in The Financial Review, but secured a full page ad in The Australian.

The ad featured farmers whose livelihoods could be under threat from another coal seam gas groundwater contamination. Thank you to all those who took time out during harvest to help make the ad happen. The dynamic fundraising effort helped us reach over half a million Australians. Even better, the ad sparked national media attention, generating headlines like 'Santos told: Your gas is on the nose.'

A special thank you for the relentless work of the Northwest Alliance, The Wilderness Society, Lock The Gate and all other groups involved in this fight. Without your dedication, none of this would be possible.

Santos' CEO and executives now know they have to justify their actions to shareholders and to the public. No longer will they be allowed operate as they like, treating the land they use with contempt and not expect to face the consequences.

Learn more about what the GetUp movement is doing to protect Australia from the dangers of coal seam gas.

BACK TO CAMPAIGNS

2013 Federal Election

As the largest independent political movement in Australia, GetUp is in a unique position to hold all parties accountable at election time and shine a spotlight on the issues that matter, but which don’t always get the media attention they deserve.

We knew it was going to be a tough and important contest, with a real risk of one party gaining not only Government, but rule of the Senate as well. So we rolled out our most ambitious election program ever this year -- powered by 17,000 donors and more than 6,000 grassroots volunteers around the country.

Together, we reached more than 3 million Australians with a combination of innovative digital tactics, cut-through television ads and good old fashioned pounding of the pavement.

Every election is important – but this year we knew there was a very real risk of one conservative party winning not only government, but sole control of the Senate as well. That was high stakes for democracy and many of the issues GetUp members care about most, so we crafted our most ambitious plan yet to empower the voices of ordinary Australians to make a difference.

It started with GetUp members gathering in 300 grassroots GetTogether meetings around the country, to discuss the issues and help set our movement’s election agenda. We then followed up with a national online survey of GetUp members, to reinforce our movement’s mandate to go big and campaign for our top priorities. The result: our most ambitious election agenda ever.

Enrolment

At GetUp we care about the issues, and we care about democracy itself; the right and responsibility of every Australian to contribute and have a say. So we made sure our enrol to vote campaign was a game-changer. Together we pioneered online enrolment technology, and fought to make it legal. The Australian Electoral Commission went from opposing the very idea of online enrolment to copying GetUp’s technology, which in this election was used by 83 per cent of new voters!

We went into this election knowing that 1.4 million people eligible to vote were missing from the electoral roll, including 493,000 under the age of 24.

We knew it would take innovative tactics to reach those less likely to be politically engaged -- so we launched a groundbreaking Facebook app, initiated neighbour-to-neighbour enrolment drives and made headlines with our national Enrol for Gold contest, which encouraged young people to register to vote for a chance to win a share of $40,000 in gold bullion prize money.

All up, voter enrolment went up 30% this election. That includes 162,000 people who would have been disenfranchised by the early closure of the roll, had GetUp not previously fought and won to have these Howard-era laws struck down by the High Court.

Holding all the parties accountable

As an independent movement, GetUp is political but not partisan. That means at election time, we’re in a unique position to give an unflinching assessment of where the parties really stand on the issues of the day. So we asked Labor, Liberal, the Greens, Palmer United Party and other parties to answer real questions on policy, then put the results into a handout that was easy to understand at a glance.

All up, more than 6,000 volunteers handed out 2.4 million scorecards to voters at election booths around the country -- giving information voters could use education, health, the environment, refugees, public broadcasting and penalty rates. Thousands more voters accessed the scorecard information online.

We also hosted live multi-party Q&A candidate forums in Town Halls across the country, and online with Kevin Rudd and Christine Milne (Tony Abbott declined our invitation). All up, GetUp members organised 10 candidate forums in key electorates, which were attended by 66 candidates who answered questions directly their local constituents.

Cutting through the noise to protect democracy

First up, we knew one party was poised to win not only government, but control of the Senate. The last time this happened we got the Northern Territory intervention with minimal debate, Australian troops were sent to Iraq on faulty intelligence and WorkChoices became law of the land.  

Yet research has shown repeatedly that many Australians just don’t understand the Senate or its importance; so we created “Game of Seats”, a cheeky video explaining how the Senate works. This parody ad was viewed more than 100,000 times online alone.

We also took on powerful interests when we called out the Murdoch press for their ridiculously biased election coverage. Our ad, reminiscing about the days when you could pick up a newspaper and get, well, news – openly accused the Murdoch media of serving their readers “misleading crap”. The major commercial networks refused to air it, which only sent its online reach soaring to over 800,000 views! These were just two standout videos among many that helped reshape and reclaim the political debate for the people. No wonder Google named GetUp the top political channel online, far ahead of Labor and Liberal in reach.

Rallies on the issues that matter

Lastly, GetUp members took to the streets in key moments to stand, walk and even dress up for the issues we care about. In Brisbane, over 3,000 people rallied to protect the Great Barrier Reef. In Canberra, we came out in support of renewable energy, and in Melbourne we held rallies for climate action. We also threw our weight behind campaigns for the landmark Gonski education reforms.

Regardless of what GetUp members think about the political outcome of the election, we can be proud that our movement stepped up to become more active, energised and powerful than ever.

BACK TO CAMPAIGNS

Democracy

On July 2, 2013 the Queensland Government set out to ‘solve’ a problem that doesn’t really exist: voter fraud. Their plan: to require people to prove their identity. Not just when they enrol, but every time they vote.  Not only that, but they decided to allow a whole lot more (secret) money into politics, and make the head of the corruption watchdog a party-appointed position.

Journalists and academics said the new voter ID laws were simply about silencing the people less likely to vote conservative. The proposed changes were likely to silence up to two thirds of Indigenous Australians who do not have a driver’s license; along with the elderly, young, disabled, homeless and those who move house frequently.

The Queensland Government were also planning to make other backwards changes to State legislation, allowing in:

• Floods of cash

They proposed scrapping Queensland's donation caps of $5,300 to a party and $2,200 per candidate, throwing open the floodgates to big companies and big money.

• Secret Money

They wanted to allow up to $1.1 million to be given secretly to MPs without being declared.

• Raiding the Public Kitty

A new stack of taxpayer money – likely to be in the millions millions – was proposed. This would flow to the major parties, with the majority going to the party in power, helping to keep them there.

Finally the Queensland Government said they would change the structure of the corruption watchdog. Instead of being a bi-partisan decision, the head of the Crime and Misconduct Commission would now be picked by the Government alone. The Commission would also be instructed to give less priority to uncovering political corruption.

In response to this attack on integrity, thousands of Queensland GetUp members got loud, coordinated and creative.

• • We chipped in to run hard-hitting ads that exposed the plan in Queensland's most read paper, The Courier-Mail.

• • We wrote to our local QLD newspapers and our MPs; 162 QLD GetUp members even made submissions to the parliamentary committee tasked with reviewing the legislation in January.

• • GetUp members appeared in a video that was seen by more than 15,000 people about why voter suppression mattered, and the importance of protecting the integrity of elections.

• • We delivered a petition to the QLD Attorney General, and put a porcelain throne on the lawn outside his office and told him to flush toilet paper ballot papers – not real votes! The next day members delivered the petition to the Premier and took a pinata full of chocolate votes to the Premier’s office, asking him to take a stick to the chocolate-filled ballot box, not real ones. And in May, GetUp members delivered the petition to the Parliament – feeding a ballot box into a wood chipper.

We didn’t stop there. In the week before the vote GetUp members wrote to their MPs to let them know that a personalised webpage had been built for them, which would show how they voted on the laws. In addition, GetUp members advised that every time a voter searched for their MP on Google, the link to that MP's "Highest Bidder" webpage would be front and centre!

Outcome

Despite the strong majority of the governing Liberal National Party pushing these laws, and lack of any watchdog Senate in QLD state parliament, important concessions were still won.

• • The final laws enable people who couldn’t meet ID requirements on election day to still cast a vote by signing a declaration saying they are who they claim to be, ensuring tens of thousands of Queenslanders will still be able to have their say at elections.

• • The Labor Party, Katter Party, Palmer Party and key independents voted against the changes, and the Opposition has committed to reversing them once in Government.

Following the passage of the laws the Assistant Health Minister and Member for Stafford, Dr Chris Davis, resigned in protest.  When whispers surfaced that the QLD Premier might leave the people of Stafford without a representative for 10 months to prevent another bruising by-election, more than 10,000 GetUp members added their name to a petition asking the Premier to call a by-election.  On the morning the petition was due to be delivered (less than an hour after a press release went out about the delivery) the Premier announced a date for the by-election!

Following the LNP’s crushing defeat at the Stafford By-election, the Premier backflipped on the most damaging of the changes to the Corruption watchdog, and reinstated the requirement for the head of the independent watchdog to be appointed with bipartisan support. A great win.

Looking forward

GetUp has a proud history of standing up for voting rights, including a landmark case in the High Court in 2010, which successfully prevented 100,000 Australians from being disenfranchised due to Howard-era laws which had closed the rolls early. We also pioneered online enrollment technology; and we’ll continue our work to ensure every Australian has the right to have their say at election time.

What next?

The GetUp movement is considering campaigning for same-day enrolment. Both NSW and Victoria now allow someone who’s perhaps just turned 18 or moved house to enrol to vote and cast their ballot on the spot on Election Day. Over the next year we’ll try to get the other states and Federal elections up to scratch.

There are a number of other issues that GetUp will be paying attention to, including:

• • Capping donations in order to protect integrity of our democracy against the influence of corrupting money, special interests and lobbyists;

• • Improving transparency, so the public knows who’s giving money to politicians and parties, and what financial interests politicians have - including assets they might put in their spouses’ name;

• • Improving the representation of women and minorities in our parliaments; and establishing stronger corruption watchdogs like the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

BACK TO CAMPAIGNS

Better Power

Scrapping or scaling-back the Renewable Energy Target (RET) would have a devastating effect on the Australian renewable energy industry, jeopardising billions of dollars of investment and sending power prices soaring, so when the future of the RET was threatened we knew we needed to do something. GetUp members took the fight to the big, dirty, fossil-fuel power producers trying to undermine the RET, using their collective consumer power to attack these companies where it hurts - their profits.

In early 2014 the Renewable Energy Target (RET) came under serious attack by the fossil fuel industry led by the anti-renewables retailers Origin, Energy Australia and AGL. The Abbott Government had formed a panel to again review the RET, led by self-confessed climate skeptic Dick Warburton. No-one was under any illusion about the potential to scrap or drastically scale-back the RET, decimating the renewable energy industry. Big energy companies AGL, Origin and EnergyAustralia ramped up their attack on renewables, given the chance to boost their fossil fuel-profits, spreading misleading information about the impact of the Target.

Something needed to be done, so to stand up for the RET and the future of renewables in this country, we rolled out an ambitious new program that utilised the collective consumer power of GetUp members. It all started with a test of the new tactic by Victorian GetUp members.

The plan was that GetUp members would switch away from these big, dirty, fossil-fuel power producers to a pro-RET power company, Powershop. This sent a strong message that we weren’t going to stand idly by while the future of the RET was in serious jeopardy. It was a message that hit the bottom line of the anti-renewables power companies, so they heard it loud and clear.

It was a bold new initiative, and something a bit different for the GetUp movement, but we've seen consumer power work before, having convinced some of the biggest investment banks in the world, such as Deutsche Bank and the Royal Bank of Scotland, to rule out investments in coal ports along the Great Barrier Reef.

Although in its infancy at the end of the 2013/14 financial year, the program has already seen over 3000 people make the switch to a cheaper, cleaner and pro-renewables company, sending a powerful message that the people of Australia want a clean energy future and that they’re going to fight to make that dream a reality.

Find out more about this program or make the switch and stand up for renewables.

BACK TO CAMPAIGNS

Marriage Equality

As GetUp members have said, “we’ve eliminated discrimination in our hearts. It’s time to remove it from our laws.”

To do that, we need a conscience vote in federal parliament. Labor has already said they’ll allow their members a free conscience vote on this issue. There are enough MPs personally in favour of ending marriage discrimination, that should the Coalition follow suit and allow their MPs to vote their conscience same-sex marriages would be allowed across Australia.

In early 2014, the ACT’s amendment to the Marriage Act, allowing for same-sex couples to marry, was overturned. It thus became clear that the fight for marriage equality must be won at a federal level.

As long as the current government under Tony Abbott is in power, it seems unlikely that we can achieve marriage equality in Australia. Our best shot is convincing local Members, one at a time; so that when given the opportunity one day to vote their conscience they will vote in favour of ending marriage discrimination against same-sex couples.

GetUp members were active this year – emailing and calling their State MPs with their personal stories, sharing videos and posts on social media and signing a petition calling for a conscience vote.

Find out more about our campaign for marriage equality.

BACK TO CAMPAIGNS

Meet Your MP

The Meet your MP project was launched in the wake of the federal election in September 2013. Over nine months, 1,267 GetUp members put up their hands to organise face-to-face meetings with their federal MPs around Australia.

The Meet your MP project was a big and ambitious plan to put real people-power back into action, and demonstrate the passion and dynamism of the GetUp movement in our communities. GetUp members sat down to meetings with MPs from each of the major parties and independents in every state and territory across Australia, including some of the biggest names in the new parliament such as Warren Truss, Christopher Pyne, Cathy McGowan and Anthony Albanese.

Every meeting was an opportunity for GetUp members to talk with their federal representatives about the big issues our movement prioritised in 2013 -- like real action on climate change, the fairer treatment of asylum seekers, the importance of a free and independent media and a more equitable taxation system for all Australians.

And whether we were able to agree on all the issues raised, or none at all, the impact of GetUp members meeting with their representatives has lasted well beyond these thirty-minute conversations. From within the local media, to the halls of Parliament House, the GetUp members who drive our movement have certainly made an impression, and now we can be sure our decision makers know just who GetUp is and what it is we’re fighting for. Most importantly, the Meet your MP project has enabled a new generation of future community leaders to be empowered and step up to take action on the issues they care about.

BACK TO CAMPAIGNS

Economic Fairness

This year’s federal budget represented an unprecedented attack on people, communities, and the very ideal of a ‘fair go’. It was roundly condemned as unfair – the most unpopular budget in living memory. The most vulnerable Australians were made to foot the bill, while mining and big business were given a free pass. It went to the fundamental question: Do we want to let ourselves be divided into “lifters” and “leaners”? Or live in strong, united communities where people look out for one another?

So over an incredible few months, GetUp members joined the budget fightback – launching campaigns to defend universal healthcare, affordable higher education and our social safety net, and protect a fair go for all Australians.

Medicare - GetUp members stood up for our world-class Medicare system, telling the government to abandon its plans to target the sick and vulnerable with a new GP co-payment.

Newstart - GetUp members told the government to halt its cruel cuts and delays to Newstart, to keep young jobseekers from falling into desperate poverty.

Higher education - GetUp members kicked into gear to defend access to affordable education, determined to protect our young people from ballooning student debt.

We started by fighting back against the Medicare co-tpayment, with a parody TV ad, and our innovative online map showing just how much it would hurt the poorest communities.

Thousands of members then called or contacted critical crossbench Senators, including in the Palmer United Party. The fate of the most harmful budget measures fell to a handful of key crossbench senators. When it became clear those senators were willing to listen to everyday Australians, thousands of GetUp members opened up and spoke from the heart. In gripping terms, members spelled out how the government's cruel changes to social services, higher education and Medicare would impact their lives and damage their communities. Senators later told of the incredible impact of such direct, personal evidence – quite literally shaping senate debate.

Finally, GetUp has been working across the progressive movement to counter the divisive narrative of "lifters" and "leaners", in favour of a unified vision of a 'fair go' for all Australians. GetUp members have been instrumental in countering Mr Hockey’s budget narrative, reclaiming our vision for Australia. How do you get away with cutting vital services for millions of Australians while cutting taxes for big business? You turn Australians against each other, so they can't build power to fight back.

For Treasurer Joe Hockey, that meant dividing Australians into "lifters" and "leaners" – creating a culture of resentment where Australians think some demonised group is taking from them.

If Mr Hockey's budget rhetoric is meant to divide us, GetUp's vision for victory lies in unity. It's not enough for patients to stand up for Medicare, students to stand against university fee hikes, or young jobseekers to defend their Newstart access. In order to win, each of us has to see all these fights as our fight – one fight to protect the 'fair go' for all Australians.

That's our vision for Australia, and it's why we'll win too. Because there aren't enough CEOs or conservative think tanks to counter the great good will of the Australian people. Not if we work together. Not if we stay strong and united.

Throughout the budget fightback, one principle has been the key to victory: standing together and united with progressive allies. On Medicare, when it became clear that the media was paying close attention to health professionals' objections to the Medicare copayment, GetUp members lifted up the voices of health professionals: in our Health Voices video they spelled out the impacts on pensioners, rural communities, Indigenous Australians, people with a mental illness and women.

On higher education, we worked closely with the National Union of Students, organising rallies around the country, such as March in March. At these rallies, GetUp members hit the streets, standing shoulder to shoulder with students, pensioners, and unions. Together, GetUp members have turned the tide on this unfair budget. The Medicare copayment could soon be history, and the Government is on the ropes over their higher education changes. But with senior ministers continuing to push forward with backroom budget deals, we need to keep up the campaign.

Find out more about GetUp’s budget fightback.

BACK TO CAMPAIGNS

Save Our Forests

On June 24, after just seven minutes of deliberation, the World Heritage Committee rejected Prime Minister Tony Abbott's submission to have Tasmania's ancient forests stripped of their protection status and opened to logging.

This was a campaign emphatically won by people power, and GetUp members were proud to play our part alongside other champions for the Australian environment. Together, we delivered a 368,000-strong petition, flooded the Senate enquiry with submissions, and bought billboards all over Doha, Qatar urging the protection of Tasmania’s ancient forests.

It was the first time a country had applied to have a site of existing world heritage value de-listed. Thankfully, the World Heritage Committee unanimously rejected Prime Minister Tony Abbott's submission to have Tasmania's ancient forests stripped of their protection status and opened to logging.

It took the 21 delegate World Heritage Committee less than seven minutes to reach their decision, stating that:

The attack on our forests had been underhanded and deceitful. Although Abbott's submission to the World Heritage Committee was contradicted by the Department of Environment, other right-wing forces tried every tired trick. The right-wing Institute of Public Affairs even went so far as setting up a fake environment group, misleadingly named the Australian Environment Foundation, with the intention of confusing the Committee by pretending to represent the Australian environment movement.

But luckily, the story didn't end there.

Our movement mobilised and fought hard to defend the forests – and a genuine, massive, heartfelt public response is something the forces of greed and self-interest just can't fake. Alongside some of the world's leading environment groups, we put our names to an epic 368,869 person petition to protect Tasmania's forests. Our friends at the Australian Conservation Foundation took your voices straight to the hands of the World Heritage Committee, delivering the joint petition to them on the doorsteps of the conference centre in Doha

When our Senate launched an official inquiry into the proposal in March, GetUp members knew exactly what to do. Together we flooded the submission process with over 8,800 passionate, factual messages of support for the forests. It was clear that our voices had been heard when the Senate came out strongly against Abbott's forest attack, demanding that the World Heritage area remain intact.

With the Abbott Government ignoring the people, their own Senate, Indigenous groups, forest experts and even the logging industry, it was clear that this campaign needed to go international. Our voices needed to carry around the world directly to the delegates of the World Heritage Committee: in particular to the Chair, Her Excellency Mrs Sheika Al Mayassa Bint Harnad Al-Thani. Abbott may have made one official submission, but our movement countered his reckless move by writing 8,607 letters to the Chair herself.

To cut through the lies of the fake, IPA environment group, GetUp members chipped into our largest international ad buy ever, covering Doha with 60 stunning billboards of Tasmania's forests.

We heard over and over from guests and delegations that they were seeing our ads everywhere: outside the conference centre, at the airport and even in front of the official accommodation.

Every morning as the delegates of the World Heritage Committee left their hotel to resume negotiations their hearts and minds were filled with images of Tasmania's forests and our message: these forests are outstanding, and the people of Australia want them to remain protected.

At the very last minute, GetUp member donations made it possible to support the Environment Tasmania-led delegation of World Heritage experts to go to Doha to be a voice for the forests’ protection at the official conference.

This was an incredible campaign, one that illustrated the strength of our movement when we come together and fight to protect the issues we care about.

None of this would have happened without the relentless work of The Wilderness Society, Environment Tasmania, Australian Conservation Foundation, Indigenous groups and environment groups from across Tasmania – alongside the hundreds of thousands of Australians who stood up for the forests.

BACK TO CAMPAIGNS

FinancialsBack to Top

Audit Report

OtherBack to Top

the getup boardBack to Top

The GetUp board is composed of leaders from across the community, academia and business who play a critical role in supporting and guiding the organisation. The collective experience, wisdom and leadership they bring is an invaluable asset and we wish to thank them for their time and contributions to GetUp and the progressive movement as a whole.

Jeremy Heimans

Jeremy Heimans is co-founder and CEO of Purpose. Jeremy has been building movements since the age of 8 when, as a child activist in his native Australia, he ran media campaigns and lobbied leaders on issues like children's rights and nuclear non-proliferation. He co-founded GetUp, In 2007, Jeremy co-founded Avaaz, the world's largest online citizens' movement, now with more than 34 million members. The World e-Government Forum has named him as one of the top ten people who is changing the world of politics and the internet, and the Guardian named him one of the ten most influential voices on sustainability in the US.

Brett Solomon

Brett is co-founder and Executive Director of Access (accessnow.org). He was the first Executive Director of GetUp. Brett has worked both locally and internationally on a range of social justice and human rights issues. He honed his career at Oxfam Australia, where he founded the International Youth Parliament (IYP), an international network of young social change leaders from 140 countries tackling issues such as poverty, conflict and globalization. Prior to this, he worked as the Campaign Coordinator for Amnesty International Australia, where his main focus was refugees and asylum seekers, the arms trade and national security.

Anne Coombs

Anne Coombs is a writer and social entrepreneur. She was one of the founders of Rural Australians for Refugees, which grew from three people, to over ten thousand between 2001 - 2004, and became one of the most effective advocate groups for refugees. This gave her hands-on experience in network building, message shaping and promotion. She has been involved in many community activists initiatives at both a local and national level. Anne is currently the executive director of the Becher Foundation, which supports progressive and innovation social projects, particularly in the area of indigenous policy, refugees and regional communities. The foundation seeks in particular to support female leadership development in the non-governmental organisation sector. She is the author of three books on contemporary social history and two novels. She is also an alumnus of Sydney Leadership.

Amanda Tattersall

Amanda Tattersall is well recognised as a leading coalition builder and social change campaigner in Australia. She is the founding Director of the Sydney Alliance, a diverse coalition of unions, community organisations, schools and religious organisations that uses community organising to make Sydney a better place to live. She is a co-founding director and chair of GetUp.

Sarah Maddison

Sarah Maddison is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow in the School of Social Sciences at the University of New South Wales. Her fellowship project is a four-year comparative project exploring dialogue and reconciliation in South Africa, Northern Ireland, Guatemala, and Australia. She is a widely published author and her recent books include Black Politics: Inside the complexity of Aboriginal political culture (Allen and Unwin 2009, winner of the Australian Political Studies Association Henry Mayer book prize in 2009), Beyond White Guilt: The real challenge to Black-White relations in Australia (Allen and Unwin 2011), and the co-edited collection Unsettling the settler state: Creativity and resistance in Indigenous Settler-state governance (Federation Press 2011). Her earlier books are Activist Wisdom (UNSW Press 2006, with Sean Scalmer) and Silencing Dissent (Allen and Unwin 2007, co-edited with Clive Hamilton).

David Madden

In 2004, David was one of the founders of Win Back Respect, a web-based campaign against the foreign policy of United States President George W. Bush. The following year, he co-founded GetUp. David and Jeremy subsequently co-founded Avaaz.org. David is the co-author of Imagining Australia: Ideas for Our Future (Allen & Unwin, 2004). In 2006 David was named one of the "Top 10 People who are Changing the World of Politics and the Internet" by Politics Online and the World E-Government Forum.

Katie Kiss

Katie is a Kaanju Aboriginal woman from Cape York Australia; and a descendant of the Wiri people of the Bowen region of North Queensland. Katie graduated from Deakin University with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in International Relations. She has been involved in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs at the local, community, state, national and international level for the past 20 years across a wide range of issues including: community development; social justice; constitutional reform; governance; native title and land management; cultural heritage and environment protection and management; education, training and employment. Katie spent eight years at the Australian Human Rights Commission; and most recently held the position of Director of Strategic Projects at the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples. She is a current Chamber Three Delegate of the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples; she is a standing Board Member of Ngroo Education Incorporated and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC); and she is the nominated representative in her families land and native title negotiations.

Chris Gambian

Chris is passionate about grassroots worker power. He has almost 20 years experience as an activist and community organiser. Chris is currently Director of Grassroots & Co, a union consultancy that focuses on helping unions and other grassroots organisations improve their organising and internal operations through review, strategy, training and innovation.

Simon Westcott

Simon is a long time GetUp member and supporter with extensive experience in the not-for-profit sector through board and community positions in health and the arts. He is currently Chairman of Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne. He owns and runs travel media company Mr & Mrs Smith, after a long career in print and digital media, most recently in Australia at Fairfax and Lonely Planet. He is Fellow of the Williamson Community Leadership Program.

The GetUp board were not remunerated, and nor has any director received a benefit because of a contract made by GetUp in the financial year.