The once powerful activist group GetUp is watching its empire crumble even as it doubles down on political warfare.
The left-wing outfit that used to brag about shaping elections is now staring down financial ruin while launching [1] a fresh attack on One Nation.
Instead of confronting its own internal chaos and cratering donations, GetUp is apparently betting that yet another anti-conservative crusade will save it.
GetUp’s latest stunt was straight out of the activist handbook.
During Senator Pauline Hanson’s National Press Club address this week, protesters interrupted the live event, unfurling a banner that accused her of hypocrisy on worker pay.
The senator, never one to be intimidated, finished her address without flinching.
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But while the activists celebrated the disruption online, the liberal political outfit behind it was quietly drowning in red ink.
Financial records obtained by The Australian show GetUp’s funding collapse has been dramatic.
Donations fell from almost 6 million dollars last year to just over 4 million this year.
That figure is a far cry from the 12.4 million dollars the group pulled before the 2019 federal election when it was at the height of its influence.
Cash reserves have nearly vanished.
At the end of June 2025, GetUp was sitting on only 104,427 dollars compared to almost 4 million just three years earlier.
The shrinking wallet has been followed by shrinking staff.
Once employing more than 70 people, the group is now down to roughly a dozen workers after repeated redundancies.
The activist machine that once flooded electorates with glossy campaign ads against conservative MPs has been reduced to a skeleton crew.
Even its top brass are on their way out, with interim chief Paul Ferris announcing he will soon return to Stockholm.
This leadership vacuum is not new.
The group has gone through multiple shakeups since the exit of former chief executive Larissa Baldwin Roberts.
Insiders admit morale is at rock bottom, with staff passing a vote of no confidence in both the chair and deputy chair over the direction of the organization.
None of GetUp’s directors have even managed to survive longer than four years on the board, a clear sign of how much internal turmoil now defines the outfit.
Once a close ally of Labor aligned unions, GetUp has shifted entirely toward far left ideology.
Environmental and social justice activists now dominate leadership, and it shows in their priorities.
Even Labor MPs are over it. As one Labor figure bluntly told The Australian, “They’ve been overrun by activists.”
That kind of comment says plenty about just how far GetUp has drifted from being a serious political player to just another protest club.
Despite the financial freefall, GetUp insists it is ramping up operations again.
The group recently launched what it calls the “Fightback Fund,” which it claims will bankroll research, digital ads, and billboards targeting One Nation supporters.
The irony is hard to miss.
A broke activist network losing donors by the day now wants to fight a populist party that is actually growing in support.
At the heart of its new campaign is a push for sweeping “media reform.”
The plan includes abolishing the Australian Press Council and installing a new authority to “keep the press in line.”
The push is being led by David Sharaz, husband of former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins.
Sharaz joined GetUp recently and is already spearheading the organization’s flagship crusade against what it calls “media bias.”
Critics see this as a thinly veiled attempt by the left to silence opposing voices.
GetUp’s eagerness to meddle in elections has not faded either.
The group spent an estimated 600,000 dollars during the Farrer by election trying to stop One Nation candidate David Farley through an advertising blitz.
The campaign flopped.
But that has not stopped GetUp from bragging about taking on Pauline Hanson’s party as it gains ground in national polling.
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One Nation recently scored 28 percent of the primary vote in a Sky News Pulse survey, a number that sent alarm bells ringing in left wing circles.
The group’s escalating antics have drawn bipartisan criticism, even from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
He told reporters that people “should be allowed” to speak at the National Press Club and “treated respectfully.”
That is rare public disapproval from a Labor leader toward a group that for years operated as a grassroots arm of the progressive movement.
One Nation did not mince words either.
A party spokesperson blasted GetUp as “Labor’s union funded attack dog against those on the conservative side of politics.”
They added that if Labor fails to denounce the vigilante activism, it “only supports this type of activism which brings with it a whole new level of security concern.”
Barnaby Joyce called the protest “really quite dangerous” during an interview on Sky News, reminding viewers that free speech does not mean mob disruption.
After years of failed campaigns, tumbling donations, and leadership in disarray, GetUp’s playbook seems to be reduced to one tired tactic: attack conservatives and hope someone still cares enough to donate.
Judging by their financial statements, that gamble is not paying off.
While One Nation’s support climbs, GetUp’s war chest and credibility keep falling further behind.