GetUp to ReEnergise Climate Debacle

Public interest lobby group GetUp launched their ReEnergise Australia campaign this month. The group will be targeting marginal electorates with volunteer-run climate information drives.

Campaign spokesperson, Oliver MacColl, explained that the politics of climate action in Australia so far have been captured by fear and misinformation campaigns run by heavily polluting industries and their mouthpieces. In particular, he said that these groups repeatedly promise that political action will cost thousands of jobs.

In marginal electorates especially, such threats make voters and candidates alike go weak at the knees. Indeed, says MacColl, these seats are “the only places that matter electorally in Australia because of the way that things are set up.”

But among others, a study commissioned by the Australian Conservation Foundation points to the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs in a new sustainable economy.

GetUp’s new climate action plan comes from the belief that “surely in a democracy, politicians respond to the demands of their constituents.”

Rather than just blaming the media and accusing elected representatives of spinelessness, GetUp are hoping education campaigns in marginal seats might turn the tide. If the government has failed to act because of misinformed voters, surely – runs the logic – addressing that misinformation will address the government’s intransigence.

The group welcomes talk of Kevin Rudd’s quest for a double dissolution trigger and an early election. “GetUp is always working for wins on the campaigns that we’re running,” said MacColl, “and elections are just a fantastic opportunity to really make a difference on the issues that people care about.”

With Labor’s timid inaction and the Coalition’s lingering disbelief still influencing both Parties’ positions on climate change action, and a public already on the verge of climate fatigue, GetUp’s volunteers certainly have a tricky road ahead of them.

But a strategic campaign to make politicians more accountable to informed public will than to spin and financial influence might just be the second wind an exasperated populace needs.