23 days to topple a PM GET UP

“What if I didn’t have to wait until 2016? What if I could make Tony Abbott a half-term PM?”

No joke NEVILLE, this is our chance.

Nominations just closed for the by-election that could seal Tony Abbott’s fate and shift the political direction of the nation. Now we’ve just 23 days for an all-out, banners blazing election campaign.

Here’s what you need to know. Canning in WA was a safe Liberal seat, by a nearly 12% margin. But thanks to the unpopularity of the Abbott Government’s radical right wing agenda, the race is virtually tied: 50.1% Labor, 49.9% Coalition.¹

Senior Liberal figures say the loss from a swing of this size will likely cost Tony Abbott his job. And Liberal MPs in marginal seats are “mildly terrified” about their future, meaning a loss in Canning could force a political retreat on this government’s unpopular attacks on health, education and clean energy.²

A few hundred votes could tip the balance, and that’s when our movement is at its most powerful. But we need to act fast.

We’re armed with polling from Canning voters telling us the very issues that will shift these key votes. Local GetUp members will hit the streets, joining grassroots efforts on the ground. And to back them up, we’ll blanket the electorate with hard-hitting outdoor, print and digital advertising. But ad space is in high demand and we have to make decisions now about what we can afford to do.

Click here to chip in to our game-changing Canning campaign now.

Imagine it. An end to the relentless attacks on our public school and hospitals, pensioners and young people, a clean energy future, and fair go for all Australians. That’s exactly what we could see if the Abbott leadership meets its downfall on 19 September in Canning.

Even Mr Abbott has said that Canning will be the ‘real’ test for how people feel about his government.³ The West Australian was more emphatic: “If the ReachTEL poll is reflected on polling day, it would certainly spell the end of Tony Abbott’s prime ministership.”⁴ The battle lines have been drawn, but how much we can tip the scales in the next 23 days depends on how much we can raise.

Are you up for it? https://www.getup.org.au/canning

It’s been two years since Mr Abbott became top dog, and in this time we’ve lost so much. Massive cuts to our ABC and the SBS, thousands of experts forced out of the CSIRO, attacks on clean energy, pensions and social welfare – not to mention efforts to dismantle our world-class Australian healthcare and education systems. No generation has been spared, no working family left unscathed.

And despite widespread public consensus they’ve overstepped their mark, Mr Abbott’s Government continues to pig-headedly ram through his radically conservative agenda.

But the people of Canning could change all that when they cast their ballots on 19 September, in a by-election that’s become a full-blown referendum on Tony Abbott’s agenda.⁵ Throwing an election campaign together in three weeks is ambitious, but rapid grassroots campaigning and cutting-edge political advertising is what GetUp does best.

There are billboards available now in major Canning commuter corridors, but we’ve only 24 hours to book them in if we’re to get them up in time.

Click here to help transform the Canning by-election into a day of reckoning for Tony Abbott and his ideological right-wing agenda.

There are defining moments in a nation’s history where a people must decide what type of country they want to be. Our movement must speak out now, on behalf of families, the sick, the vulnerable, the marginalised, students, teachers, nurses, clean energy workers, the ageing – all those who don’t have a team of lobbyists treading the halls of Parliament House – because if we don’t, who will?

Enough is enough,
Nat, Mark, Paul, Kelsey, Kajute and Sam L, for the GetUp team

PS – This vital work is about more than just Canning. With your help, the fight will continue in the months ahead with cut-through ads, polling, and election-changing grassroots networking – the very tactics that has established our movement as a formidable force for change. We’ll carry the fight right through to next year’s federal election with our biggest campaign effort ever. We’ll hold this government’s feet to the fire on universal healthcare, university fees, cuts to our public schools and hospitals and its ideological war on clean energy. We’ve been able to change the course of elections before, but to do so, we need to invest now. Click here to chip in.

References
[1] ‘Canning poll on a knife edge’, The West Australian, 26 August 2015
[2] ‘Storm clouds gathering over Tony Abbott’s leadership’, Sydney Morning Herald, 22 August 2015
[3] ‘Newspoll: Bill Shorten’s stocks bounce to three month high’, The Australian, 25 August 2015
[4] ‘Canning poll on a knife edge’, The West Australian, 26 August 2015
[5] ‘Canning byelection a referendum on PM’, The West Australian, 21 August 2015