Online Pressure Group Writes Wish List To Rudd
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday January 23, 2008
THE left-wing group that helped Labor by pouring substantial resources into campaigning against the Howard government last year - GetUp! - is presenting federal politicians with a "people's agenda" for the new Parliament.
The group's executive director, Brett Solomon, said more than 30,000 of its members had responded to a survey after the election asking them to nominate their priorities for the next three years.The organisation had distilled the responses into 10 points, which were headed by environmental sustainability, making high-quality education available to all and delivering justice to indigenous Australians.Mr Solomon said the results of the survey and an earlier round of meetings of GetUp! members in 130 federal electorates represented "an authoritative statement of the agenda this considerable group of active citizens expect the new Parliament to enact". Members would present the agenda - which also calls for the divide between rich and poor to be narrowed and for the enactment of a bill of rights and other measures to protect human rights - to MPs from all parties in their electorates before Parliament resumes next month.GetUp! describes itself as a non-partisan community advocacy organisation with a membership of more than 250,000. Its most recent financial statement shows it raised more than $1 million in donations in 2006-07 with most of this spent on political campaigning. The left-leaning and broad aspirational nature of the group's "people's agenda" is not surprising given the emphasis of GetUp! on progressive politics. With the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, reiterating in recent days his election promise to run a fiscally conservative government, the left-leaning GetUp! membership could well become disillusioned with the new Labor Government.
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald