Further evidence of foreign influence was revealed recently in a Wikileaks exposure of the emails of Hilary Clinton’s former campaign Chairman John Podesta (who founded the Centre for American Progress). The emails showed that the foreign Sandler Foundation was orchestrating and funding opposition to the Australian Coal Industry through the Sunrise Project.
A congratulatory email from the Sunrise Project’s Executive Director John Hepburn (former head of Greenpeace) credited GetUp, 350.org, Greenpeace, Australian Youth Climate Coalition, Market Forces and the Mackay Conservation Group as working together to block the Adani Mine, with funding from foreign interests.
So the future development of Australia’s economy, in this case our vast natural resources, is being decided by foreign organisations – not Australian voters.
GetUp are also foundation members of the Online Progressive Engagement Network (OPEN). OPEN is an international network that provides a range of services to activist organisations around the world – a sort of incubator and training hub to create and fund even more far-left activism.
The Managing Director of OPEN is none other than GetUp’s current Chairman Phil Ireland, while the other Directors are from India, the US, the UK and Germany.
Bizarrely, GetUp has received two separate payments of about 41,000 euros ($65,389) in 2015 and 2016 from Campact, a German organisation as "funds held on trust" in membership fees for the Online Progressive Engagement Network (OPEN).
A GetUp spokeperson explained to SBS News in February 2018 that "(Funds held on trust) are generally used to save on bank transaction fees and foreign exchange fluctuations, or to shift the burden of administering those funds."
So exactly what services are GetUp providing to other foreign members of OPEN – and vice versa?
And speaking of services, local GetUp Board member Daniel Stone’s digital campaign company Principle Co lists US-based GetUp funder Avaaz as a client, along with the Labor Party, the ACTU, The Australian Youth Climate Coalition, and the Maritime Union.
These examples really just scratch the surface of GetUp’s web of foreign-backed activities.
Many of GetUp’s affiliates - those organisations that they support and who support them in their activities - also receive funding from a range of overseas sources.
Just a few of the local activist organisations with links to GetUp include: The Sunrise Project, Beyond Zero Emissions, Environment Victoria, 350.org, Australian Youth Climate Coalition, Markets for Change, Colour Code, Climate for Change, Centre for Australian Progress, Prosper Australia, Future Super, Animals Australia, Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network, Cool Australia, The Change Agency, Citizens Climate Lobby, Climate Action Network Australia, Greenpeace, Lock the Gate, Nature Conservation Foundation, Friends of the Earth, Tipping Point, Stop Adani, CoalSwarm, Voices for Indi, Voices of Warringah, Per Capita, The Tally Room, Farmers for Climate Action; and Principle Co.