‘GetUp’ community to influence federal election?
GetUp wants to demand a positive agenda to tackle the ‘real issues’
- climate change & sustainable economic prosperity
- a fair go for all
- integrity in our relationships with other nations
- the guts to face our most pressing problems at home
- such as overwhelming rates of Indigenous poverty
- the lack of essential services in the bush
- the surreal costs of childcare, education or a decent home in the city.
GetUp says, ” The federal election is coming and campaigns are already in full swing. But we have something the corporate lobbyists, right-wing pundits and even the political parties themselves don’t: numbers. With more than 160,000 of us, we have the power to influence party rooms and press galleries and fight for the issues we care about.
GetUp staff are off to Canberra as Parliament reconvenes. And if we all take a minute now to email our friends about GetUp, we will grow to 200,000-strong in time for key, agenda-setting meetings with politicians from all parties. So the most significant action you can take today isn’t signing a petition or writing your MP – it’s inviting a friend, colleague or Australian living overseas to join GetUp. Our new system makes it easier than ever – just click on the link below.
www.getup.org.au/campaign/TwoHundredThousandin2007
This is your movement. You have the power to make it even stronger immediately, by reaching out to all those people you know who wish things were different but don’t know what to do about it; those people who dread the idea of another election won or lost on self-serving agendas and backroom party deals.
Without endorsing any one party, we can work together and make this election year about our needs and our vision for Australia, instead of their spin-doctoring and scare-mongering. Numbers = power, and if each of us takes a moment to spread the word now, we will change the country. (Editor’s italics)
And in case you think you’ve seen it all before, this year there’ll be more ways than ever to have an impact. We’re planning new initiatives and adding new features to the website like crazy. You’ll have the option to create your own GetUp profile, meet up with other GetUp members in your area, organise events, lobby MPs and blitz your local press and talkback radio, all at the touch of a button.
Enough talking from us – it’s over to you to tell your friends to GetUp! Help us grow to 200,000 members today.
Thank you for being part of this,
The GetUp Team
PS: The person who invites the most friends to join GetUp will win the chance to visit Canberra with GetUp this year, to work the halls of Parliament House – all expenses paid. And if that’s not to your liking, we have a pack of great film tickets to give away. Email your details and the number of people you’ve told about GetUp to info@getup.org.au.”
I really like the italicised bit!
1 Comment
During my 65 plus years of watching politics from adolescence to senescence, the only government ever to truly govern in the interests of Australia and all its citizens was the bipartisan War Cabinet during the threat of WWII. The 21st century will bring far greater and longer challenges than WWII, yet we are still hamstrung by an outdated century old compromise constitution which encourages dishonest party politics, actively discourages long term planning in the national interst, and ignores the moral and social rights of citizens.
Getup should encourage electors not to vote for any party or independent candidate not prepared to make a core promise to initiate and support a democratic, Australia wide review of the constitution during the next term of parliament. If they accept this challenge we can then vote for our party of choice secure in the knowldge that a bipartisan attempt will at last to lift our political standards from the level of the gutter. Non-acceptors won’t deserve our vote.