The Getup Connection
Steggall is more concerned about the Great Barrier Reef than the beaches in her electorate.
GetUp's support for Zali Steggall in Warringah is no coincidence – it endorses almost all of her policies too. By Tim James.
At a live broadcast of the Sky News Australia's Paul Murray show from a pub in Tony Abbott's electorate of Warringah last week, one of the biggest cheers from the audience of locals (and most likely viewers at home too) was when a candidate said, “GetUp should get out of Warringah.”
Interestingly, that statement was made by United Australia Party candidate Suellen Wrightson. But GetUp is doing the opposite.
GetUp is fixated on Warringah, spending big and deploying sophisticated campaign resources to criticise Abbott and promote “independent” candidate Zali Steggall. One of Steggall’s two campaign directors is active GetUp member Louise Hislop; the other is a well-known Labor campaign director Anthony Reed.
Steggall's affinity with GetUp was apparent from the start of her campaign. “She indicated se would accept the support of left-wing group GetUp,” The Sydney Morning Herald reported after she announced her candidacy in January.
As has been reported, there are so many common resources, people, themes and language that confirm the Steggall campaign and GetUp are joined at the hip.
But it is policy that matters most. Here are five of GetUp's core policy areas and Steggall's statements on the matter.
GetUp: “Fighting for a safe and healthy climate.”
Warringah voters may or may not consider this a top priority, but Steggall does. SBS correctly reported that she “campaigns on climate change in bid to win Tony Abbott’s seat.” When asked who she would form government with, Steggall said she would decide according to climate policy. In other words, she would side with Labor, led by former GetUp director Bill Shorten. Steggall's target for emissions reductions by 2030 is 60 per cent. Yes, 60 per cent. This is higher than Labor’s 45 per cent, it's closer to it than the Coalition's (26-28 per cent). So, given a choice, she will side with Labor.
GetUp: “Protecting the future of our reef.”
Warringah voters are more focused on local beaches and bushland than the Great Barrier Reef almost 2000km away but Steggall won't be deterred. This week she tweeted that “we must act now to #savethereef” and retweeted a report calling for “radical climate action” for the reef’s survival. She didn't specify what “action” Warringah residents should take.
GetUp: “Holding governments to account.”
Coincidentally, “holding to account” is precisely what the Government has been trying to do regarding GetUp. GetUp talks in alarming tones about “dark money” in the Australian political system but opposes efforts to reveal the nature of its funding and operations. Despite the double standard, Steggall has joined GetUp’s calls for a National Integrity Commission. And they say all politics is local.
GetUp: “Stopping the world’s biggest coal mine.”
Never mind that this statement is incorrect (Adani would not be world’s biggest), this has become core business for Steggall. “We need an orderly retirement from coal,” she told The Guardian Australia in February. She has found a small band of supporters in the electorate. A Facebook group called Stop Adani Warringah, with 400 followers, has been organising rallies on local beaches and a Climate Election Candidates Forum in Mosman this month. Steggall and GetUp both attended.
GetUp: “Defending refugees and asylum seekers”
Warringah has an “overwhelming concern for Australia’s treatment of refugees,” Steggall told news.com.au in February. If this were true, Warringah would have voted very differently in 2013, when refugees were a central issue of the election. Abbott was elected in 2013 as the leader of a party promising to “stop the boats.” But Steggall is adamant this policy area continues to be a significant one, and that her and GetUp's left-leaning “compassion” for illegal immigrants, as distinct from the Coalition's orderly and humanitarian immigration policy, resonates more in Warringah. In the Financial Review, Steggall criticised the Coalition's policy to reopen the detention centre on Christmas Island as “brinkmanship”.
GetUp won’t get out of Warringah because it is too busy purchasing - with money partly from undisclosed sources - what it hopes to be the GetUp get-square on Tony Abbott. And if Zali Steggall is successful GetUp will have been a significant driver. Luckily, she and GetUp see eye-to-eye on most crucial issues.