Saturday, November 5, 2011

Why I Support GetUp #auspol

Dear Roger,

I wasn’t planning on emailing you today, but you should know what Senator Ian McDonald just said about you during the Senate debate on climate legislation.

Twice, in our Parliament, he called you and other GetUp members “the Hitler Youth wing of the Greens' political movement.”

GetUp member Andrew's response says it all:

I am a 47 year old Australian citizen, retired Police Officer and a member of GetUp. Your comments in Parliament were not only offensive to me personally but offend the office of Senator. Organisations like Getup exist only because political parties, including the Greens, do not adequately represent our interests. We are many and we will be heard.
- Proud GetUp Member, Andrew

Let's clarify something for Senator MacDonald: movements like GetUp are how ordinary Australians respond to out-of-touch politicians like him.

And then this, from Senator MacDonald's colleague Bronwyn Bishop scorning GetUp donors in a committee hearing. When told the average donation to GetUp is just $27, she scoffed: “$27 doesn’t add up to much.”

But we know what it adds up to: a movement of over half a million Australians trying to make our nation a better place. Of 69,087 people so far this year who have donated to make it all possible. Of progress on the issues we care about and bind us together.

Well Senator MacDonald, I'm proud to be a part of that. Those small donations, each week, create the change politicians like this never will.

It's easy to just laugh at Senator McDonald's comments -- until we remember that he could very well be running the country soon.

Come Tuesday, Australia will finally have a bill to start tackling dangerous climate change… but people like Senator McDonald are hell-bent on derailing climate action and overturning the progress we've made.

I joined GetUp because alone, my voice could never be heard. Alone, my spare change could never match the wealth of those Ms Bishop prefers to have influence. But together, we have something extraordinary.

Senator MacDonald can feel free to attack me personally if he disagrees with me, but it is of no place for any elected official to attack everyday Australians who take part in GetUp for daring to play a part in our democracy. Whatever he calls our movement, I'm so proud to be a part of it.

Thanks Andrew, for saying it better than I could, and thanks Senator MacDonald for reminding us why this movement exists in the first place.

Simon Sheikh,
National Director,
GetUp!

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