GetUp to campaign in Canning by election

GetUp is pulling out all the stops for a big effort in Canning. They want to book billboards in key commuter corridors but only have a short time in which to book them.  

You can contribute here if you want.

Far from just an average boring by election in a safe Lieberal seat, Canning has shaped up as a do or die election for Abbott's prime minister-ship. There is widespread consensus that if Canning is lost to Labor then Abbott will lose his job.

A safe Lieberal seat with a 12% comfort zone, nobody thought that it would be in danger. Yet it is. So hated is Abbott that the 12% has evaporated to nothing with both parties now neck and neck.

This from the GetUp email:

Imagine it. An end to the relentless attacks on our public school and hospitals, pensioners and young people, a clean energy future, and fair go for all Australians. That's exactly what we could see if the Abbott leadership meets its downfall on 19 September in Canning. 

Even Mr Abbott has said that Canning will be the 'real' test for how people feel about his government. The West Australian was more emphatic: "If the ReachTEL poll is reflected on polling day, it would certainly spell the end of Tony Abbott's prime ministership." The battle lines have been drawn, but how much we can tip the scales in the next 23 days depends on how much we can raise. 

It's been two years since Mr Abbott became top dog, and in this time we've lost so much. Massive cuts to our ABC and the SBS, thousands of experts forced out of the CSIRO, attacks on clean energy, pensions and social welfare – not to mention efforts to dismantle our world-class Australian healthcare and education systems. No generation has been spared, no working family left unscathed. 

And despite widespread public consensus they've overstepped their mark, Mr Abbott's Government continues to pig-headedly ram through his radically conservative agenda. 

But the people of Canning could change all that when they cast their ballots on 19 September, in a by-election that's become a full-blown referendum on Tony Abbott's agenda. Throwing an election campaign together in three weeks is ambitious, but rapid grassroots campaigning and cutting-edge political advertising is what GetUp does best. 

There are billboards available now in major Canning commuter corridors, but we've only 24 hours to book them in if we're to get them up in time. contribute