NEVILLE –

Yesterday morning GetUp members unveiled our huge new billboard in Malcolm Turnbull’s electorate of Wentworth. Towering over an 8-lane commuter thoroughfare in Rushcutters Bay, the billboard will be seen by over a quarter of a million people.

GetUp members donned their GetUp tees, made fantastic signs, and turned out in Minister Turnbull’s electorate. In a sea of orange, we stood under our enormous member-funded billboard, we smiled for the cameras, we chanted, we waved to the flowing commuter traffic on Bayswater Rd, and…

The media loved it.

https://www.getup.org.au/ourABC

When Australians across the country opened their papers this morning, there we were: page 2 of the Daily Telegraph, page 6 of the Sydney Morning Herald. Then, articles in the Wentworth Courier, Prime 7, Yahoo!7 News, Sky News, Nine News, Mumbrella, the NT News, Junkee and the West Australian. We had radio interviews on 2GB and Triple Z Brisbane. The SMH even ran an opinion piece from Play School hero Benita Collings.

This media frenzy was the latest in our ongoing ABC campaign, launched last December in response to attacks by right-wing politicians and commentators. It took just 72 hours for nearly 215,000 people to sign on to the campaign and, since then, almost 12,500 people have chipped in for two billboards in the heart of Prime Minister Abbott’s and Minister Turnbull’s electorates. Hundreds more have signed up for an on-the-ground effort.

Today’s coverage could not have come at a better time, with attacks on our ABC coming thick and fast. Just yesterday the Abbott government launched an “efficiency study” into the ABC, setting the stage for funding cuts in the May budget.

We’ll be in touch soon with the next phase of the campaign but, for now, it’s fair to say, GetUp members are turning the heat up on the Abbott Government to keep their hands off our ABC!

Thanks for being a part of it,
Sam, for the GetUp team

PS – If you haven’t already, click to sign on or chip in to the campaign to save our ABC.