Our new ad – banned ALECIA GET UP

UPDATE: We just received word that Channel 9 has banned our new TV ad from airing during the evening news — and they refuse to say why. The ad simply shows, in irreverent fashion, what the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement will mean for Australian families. The Abbott government is trying to keep this deal secret from Australians, and now Channel 9 is joining in.

But we won’t give up. We’re scrambling right now for ad spots during the news on other networks, before next Saturday’s critical Canning by-election (Channel 10 says they’ll air it!). Click here to check out the ad and donate to get it on the air in time.

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Dear NEVILLE,

This is the decisive moment for the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP). Upcoming elections in Canada and the US mean if the TPP isn’t signed soon, negotiations could push back another year, or fall over altogether.

You see, Trade Minister Andrew Robb is in a real bind. It turns out Australians hate the prospect of letting multinational corporations sue our government in secret corporate courts over laws that protect our children, our health and our environment — a clause being demanded by US interests.

If Mr Robb has no political room to give in to this demand, the whole deal could fall over. Before the last-ditch round of TPP negotiations (predicted to take place within weeks), voters in Canning WA will go to the polls in a critical by-election that’s become a referendum on the Abbott agenda.

This is our chance to prove once and for all how unpopular this deal is with Australian voters and leave Mr Robb no room to negotiate our sovereignty away.

We have an attention-grabbing TV ad ready to run in Canning starting this Sunday with a message proven to cut through. Then we’ll expand to a national TV buy in the lead up to the next (and likely final) TPP negotiations. But with airtime scarce for the by-election, we need to lock in this advertising now.

Click here to check out our new TPP ad and get it in front of Canning voters in prime time news spots starting this Sunday.

A recent GetUp poll of Canning voters showed two things:

1. More than half of Canning voters don’t know much about the TPP.
2. However, those who know about it are much more likely to vote against the government, which is why we need to get this ad out there fast.

Message testing shows the most effective way of reaching voters is explaining what the TPP means for their family. But it’s not always easy to cut through on a complex issue like the TPP. That’s why our new ad takes a cheeky approach to draw in voters.

And because the next few weeks are so critical, we won’t stop with TV ads — we’ll saturate Canning through targeted Facebook and YouTube advertising to ensure we get as many eyes on the ad as possible, right up until polling day. Then we’ll do the same for marginal seat voters, who the Government fears most, in the lead up to critical TPP negotiations.

Can you help air the ad during prime-time TV spots and online? https://www.getup.org.au/tpp-family

TPP negotiations are at a precarious stage. The key to blocking the deal is making it impossible for Minister Robb to cave in to demands from the US about Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clauses. US politicians are demanding them, so US corporations can sue Australian governments over laws that affect their profits, even if they protect us from harm.

Tobacco has become a big sticking point, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — who represents Kentucky, one of America’s biggest producers of tobacco — lobbying on behalf of Big Tobacco.¹ He wants to make sure they have the power to sue our government over plain packaging laws, which help prevent our kids from taking up smoking, but hurt corporate profits. If Australia doesn’t agree to these demands, it could be a deal breaker.

Together, we can make sure Trade Minister Robb doesn’t cave in to US demands for Big Tobacco and other special corporate interests, and that could help kill off the whole TPP deal.

Chip into air this new ad and build public pressure against the TPP.

Let’s make sure Mr Robb doesn’t trade away the interests of Australian families – or Australian sovereignty – to multinational corporations.

Keep up the pressure, because it’s working!
Alycia, Mark, Nat and Daney for the GetUp team

References
[1] Will Trans-Pacific deal go up in smoke?, Politico, 12 August 2015