GetUp declares war on Abbott

The organisation GetUp has released an email asking for members to donate and declaring war on Tony Abbott. From the tone of the email and what is said that's the only way to put it. Firstly they start with Abbott's curious cabinet.

Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott has shown his hand – and where he plans to take Australia. There were a few things missing when the Prime Minister announced his new Cabinet yesterday, including:

Women Ministers – there's now only 1 in a 19 person Cabinet.

Ministers for Science, Climate Change, Energy, Youth, Disability, Status of Women, Aged Care, Mental Health, Early Childhood and more. 

Even if science, climate change, the elderly and women have been de-prioritised (it's the second time in 82 years we haven't had a minister with 'science' or 'scientific' in the title), at least we have a Minister for Sport in Cabinet and a "Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on women."

WTF? A minister to assist a misogynist on women? And a lot of ministries are no more? So we have even less representation; particularly for me being on disability. Well perhaps we can get rid of a few politicians then out of Canberra? If there's less ministries why don't we, as the bosses of Canberra, go about "rationalising" Canberra pollies then? Well it's good enough for us to cop with Abbott's views on industrial relations, so it must be good enough to him? 

And now for the declaration. If this isn't a war cry I don't know what is:  

Our new Prime Minister-elect has made his priorities pretty clear. But if he expects us to just throw up our hands and give up, he doesn't know us very well. GetUp members have faced down a conservative government before. We know exactly what it takes to campaign strategically and harness the concerns of everyday people into real political power and impact. We also know the last thing right-wing conservatives want right now is for GetUp to grow stronger – so let's do exactly that.

Edit:

It's looking like there's a method to Abbott's madness. My comment above about "restructuring" seems rather insightful in view of this:

The decision to subsume important areas of governance into larger Ministries sends clear signals that conflict with the Coalition’s stated election priorities. That in itself is a huge cause for concern. There is, however, another consequence that may hold the key to why Abbott is willing to field criticism for these moves, and it lies in another election promise – to axe more than 12,000 jobs in the Public Service.

When asked how he would decide which jobs would go, Abbott spoke vaguely of ‘natural attrition’, a remarkably slippery phrase. Often, attrition occurs when someone retires and their position is not filled by a new employee. In this case, however, the new Ministry structure leaves entire departments without a Minister or a portfolio. Undoubtedly, some of the employees will need to move across (say, from Mental Health and Ageing to Health) – but there is no faster way to shed jobs than the kind of restructuring that will need to take place in order to put the Coalition’s proposed ‘streamlined’ and ‘deflated’ Ministry into effect. No one needs to be sacked – the jobs just don’t exist anymore, so sorry, thanks for your service. more

So how many of those 12,000 public servants voted for him? 

But it gets much worse. Well for me anyway who has a particular need in the areas of disability and mental health. Apparently those areas been "deflated". 

The situation is even worse with disabilities. The Coalition has promised to establish the National Disability Insurance Scheme, arguably the most sweeping reform in the sector. As with ageing, however, Abbott seems to believe that it can be handled by an Outer Minister responsible for the entire Social Services portfolio. more

WTF? So he doesn't give a hit about me then; pesky leftie HIV+ gays.