Climate Champions

About an hour ago I received a call from a GetUp member in Port Macquarie. He's in the electorate of Independent MP Rob Oakeshott, who has one of the deciding votes on climate change policy this year.

This GetUp member was worried because shock-jocks and ultra conservative groups like the 'Australian Tea Party' have just announced a rally against climate action in his area - and they're collecting money for a local TV and radio scare-campaign too. He wanted to know how GetUp members could respond.

But it's not just Port Macquarie. Across the country, ultra-rightwing politicians, radio shock-jocks and corporate polluter lobbyists are trying to engineer a dangerous lie - that Australians are mobilising against climate action. They've ripped it straight from the playbook of the Tea Party in the USA.

What does it look like to prove them wrong - to win the fight for a price on pollution?

Well, we started winning on Saturday. You may not have seen this if you're outside Victoria, but when we heard that talkback radio shock-jocks were organising a rally against climate action in Melbourne, thousands of us came together with local climate groups for a rally of our own, and we turned their media coverage on its head.

Check out this video to see what happened on Saturday - and how, with your support, we can continue to win the fight for a price on pollution:

https://www.getup.org.au/campaign/ClimateChampions

We may not have mining magnates, carbon czars nor polluters' press on our side, but we do have the numbers. Together, each of us chipping in, our sum total will be far greater than its parts - and able to match the polluter lobby's campaign where it counts: out on the streets and on the air. Will you fund the fight for our future with $10 a week until we win the battle for a price on carbon?

With your $10 a week we'll be able to rebuff every attempt by the anti-climate campaign to win the battle for public opinion - like we did on Saturday. Together we'll:

• Hold events like the 8,000 strong rally in Melbourne to dwarf rallies against climate action. This costs real money: insurance and first-aid, staging, sound systems, power-generators, placards, posters etc.
• Commission investigative research to expose the vested corporate interests and dirty money that's funding the campaign against climate action
• Produce rapid-response radio and TV ads to counter fear with facts - particularly in the Independents' electorates, which are being targeted for ad scare-campaigns against climate action.
• Build cutting-edge online tools to help you effectively advocate for climate action: connecting to talk-back radio, calling politicians and writing to voters in battleground electorates.

For the next six months, your $10 a week can make the difference in the battle for a clean future. All we're waiting for are the funds to hit 'go'.

https://www.getup.org.au/campaign/ClimateChampions

It's rare that we're blessed with opportunities like this - the chance to have a real impact on the decisive moments that determine the path Australia takes. Normally, the size of the task at hand - going up against Australia's most powerful lobby - would deter most individuals from doing anything. But we know that we have something more powerful: each other.

Thanks for all that you do,
Simon on behalf of the GetUp team

PS - For less than the price of your daily coffee, you can help alter the course of climate action in this country. There are massive forces mobilising all their resources against action on climate change, but together we can neutralise them - thanks to your $10 a week needed to make it happen. Click here to fund the fight for our future.