Far-right Conservative likely to become Australian prime minister

But not if we can stop him. GetUp members have already started work on a vibrant, community-led local campaign in Peter Dutton's marginal seat of Dickson – which he holds by less than 2% . As Peter Dutton's power grows, we're going to need the full force of GetUp's national membership. Together, we need to unleash our grassroots power on the seat at a scale we've never seen before.
 
All the headlines today talk about the "serious threat of a leadership challenge" from Peter Dutton. But the threat is far greater than the man himself. This week, Peter Dutton and the far-right of the Liberal Party have shown that they're willing to go nuclear if it gets them what they want.5 They're willing to hold the government to ransom for their minority views and hard-right policies.

If the hard-right are handed more power, their fear-mongering and hate will be toxic to our democracy, to human rights, to action on climate change, to putting people at the centre of our democracy. That's why we need to urgently counter their efforts with a vision for a better, brighter, and fairer Australia.

That's why we have an action plan ready to roll. If enough of us chip in together we can:

• Prove that capitulating to the hard-right won't win votes. We can urgently commission polling to prove that the hard-right is out of touch with mainstream Australia on all the issues our movement cares about.

• Ramp up our ground game in Dutton's marginal seat of Dickson. GetUp members in Dickson have already started speaking with voters on the ground and on the phones. But we need to amp up our organising efforts with the mother of all ground games to ensure that Peter Dutton's local community hears the truth about what he stands for.

• Secure rare and strategic advertising space for the federal election, well ahead of time – to make sure that we can go head to head with Dutton's big money donors.

If we raise enough money, we can also scale up our federal election plans, and expand to hard-right seats in other parts of the country. We can strike at the heart of the hard-right's mission, and put our campaigns for fairness, equality and democracy back at the centre of the political story.

We are a movement of over 1 million Australians. If we all pitch in together, we can shut down Dutton's push for leadership -- and ramp up the campaign to take on the cruel policies he stands for.

We are already seeing how damaging this hard right agenda is, but just imagine if Peter Dutton had absolute power as our Prime Minister. History has shown us how quickly things can go from bad to worse. We can't take any aspect of our communities, culture or future for granted.

We're committed to building a multicultural, democratic and fair Australia. That's why we, as a movement, need to make sure that we do everything we can to head this threat off, and defeat the vision that Dutton stands for.

But to pull it off, we need to do this together. With our power united across Australia, we can stop the Dutton disaster – but it will take all of us. If you feel like helping, you can chip in now to make it happen.

If enough of us stand together now, we can make sure Peter Dutton's Australia never becomes our reality.

In solidarity,

- Jake, Ellen, Kelsey, Paul and the entire GetUp movement.

PS. Together, our movement is already having an impact in Peter Dutton's seat of Dickson. Right now, thanks to GetUp members' donations, Brisbane-based GetUp members Nadine and Trea are featured on huge billboards in the electorate. Earlier this year, GetUp Action Network volunteers made more than 30,000 calls into Dickson to speak to voters about the issues they care about. But particularly with Dutton's profile and campaign growing -- we need to double our efforts now.

References
[1] It's worth remembering the politicians who boycotted the stolen generations apology. Buzzfeed, February 13 2017.
[2] Revealed: Peter Dutton's Extensive Briefings about risks and Harm to Children on Nauru. The Guardian, August 18 2016.
[3] Peter Dutton: I share John Howard's concerns about SSM. The Australian, October 12 2017
[4] Peter Dutton ranked as worst health minister in 35 years in poll of doctors, The Guardian, Jan 12, 2015
[5] Malcolm Turnbull scrambles NEG in bid to fend off leadership challenge, Australian Financial Review, August 17 2018

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Authorised by Paul Oosting, GetUp Ltd, Level 14, 338 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW 2000.