The left-wing not-for-profit has raised the money in less than a week as part of a campaign to unseat Mr Dutton from his marginal Brisbane electorate of Dickson.
An email sent out to 350,000 GetUp! Members last Thursday resulted in donations from over 5,000 people totalling $196,911 by Tuesday night, according to The Conversation.
GetUp!, which was launched in 2005 to campaign against John Howard’s Coalition government, ran a similar campaign during the 2016 election which was credited with cutting Mr Dutton’s margin from 6.7 per cent to just 1.6 per cent – bigger than the state-wide swing of 2.9 per cent against the Government. Mr Dutton held onto his seat by less than 3,000 votes.
The proof of people power
The new funds will now go towards research in the electorate and advertising ahead of the 2019 election. So will it work?
GetUp! had success in running campaigns against several Liberal ministers who lost their seats in the last election including Andrew Nikolic, but the Minister says he is confident of holding on.
The group and Mr Dutton do have a rocky history. In February, he blasted the group after they supported a bid to take the Turnbull Government to court over its treatment of asylum seekers.
“Let this be a warning to people donating to GetUp! that you are being ripped off by these wacky causes,” his spokesperson said.
We’re thinking this is another ‘wacky cause’?
