Australian Activist group GetUp! seeks ban on foreign gifts ’for others, by Caroline Overington.
Activist group GetUp! has accepted more than $300,000 in foreign donations over the past two years while campaigning for a ban on foreign donations to Australian political parties.
GetUp!, which describes itself as independent and non-partisan, and boasts online about a successful, grassroots campaign to “put the Liberals last” during the July federal election, has been campaigning for the ban on the grounds that foreign donations have a corrosive effect on Australian democracy.
However, a review of recent donations to GetUp! reveals donations worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from international activist groups. Recent donations include $63,693 from the New York-based Oak Foundation, $42,960 from German activist group Campact, and two separate donations of $99,985 and $95,633 from the Avaaz Foundation. According to its website, the Oak Foundation funds a range of projects around the world to “address issues of global, social and environmental concern”.
The Avaaz group organises online campaigns and viral petitions, protesting on issues such as Rupert Murdoch’s ownership of newspapers, the use of fossil fuels, and GM foods. It claims 43 million members worldwide, and supporters include Al Gore.
Campact is a German version of GetUp! and campaigns on issues such as climate change and income equality.
GetUp exposed: George Soros’ tentacles reach into Australia, by Andy’s Rant at Menzies House in 2011.
GetUp’s founders David Madden and Jeremey Heimans are heavily involved in a number of similar US and global left-wing activist groups, each of which is tied to the shadowy billionaire, George Soros.
GetUp was inspired by, and modelled on similar US groups, such as MoveOn.org and Win Back Respect. Madden and Heniman were co-founders of Win Back Respect. According to public records published on CampaignDonations.net, when they were drawing expenses from the group in 2004, the major donor that year, with a contribution of $150,000, was George Soros.
Madden and Heimans are also involved with another Soros-financed left-wing activist group, MoveOn.org. Public records reveal that between January 2003 and December 2004, Soros contributed $2,500,999 to MoveOn.org.
Madden and Heimans are co-founders of the global activist group, Avaaz.org, an organization that the Canadian Minister John Baird in 2008 labelled as “shadowy foreign organization tied to billionaire activist George Soros.” …
It is clear that GetUp follows the Soros model in Australia. It is set up as a “non-partisan” activist group to harvest donations that are exempt from Australia’s political donations laws. The corporate entity, Getup Limited does not appear on the Australian Electoral Commission’s list of “associated entities”, even though it claims on its website that is legally obliged to disclose donations over $11,200 to the AEC.
The group utilises the funds together with the energy of its well-meaning activist members to target the conservative parties with stunts and advertising campaigns whilst pushing left-wing agendas such as global warming scaemongering, the carbon tax, same- sex marriage and the release of illegal refugees from detention.
Dumped files show influence of George Soros on Western politics, by Jennifer Oriel.
In perhaps the biggest political scandal since WikiLeaks, a group of hackers has dumped hundreds of files exposing the influence of socialist billionaire George Soros on Western politics.
The files show Soros has established a transnational network that pressures governments to adopt high immigration targets and porous border policies that could pose a challenge to legitimate state sovereignty. His Open Society Foundations target individuals who criticise Islamism and seek to influence the outcome of national elections by undermining Right-leaning politicians.
The Australian arm of the Soros network is GetUp!.
GetUp! was established by activists Jeremy Heimans and David Madden with funding from Soros. The Labor-affiliated Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union donated $1.1 million to the group. Bill Shorten and John Hewson are former board members. A major funder listed on its 2014-15 Australian Electoral Commission expenditure return is Avaaz, the US GetUp! affiliate that has received copious amounts of funding from Soros networks.
Like most NGOs, GetUp! claims to be independent from political parties. Like many NGOs, however, it has close ties to the Left.
