Man carrying Aboriginal flag arrested by police as union and climate activists protest at South Australian event

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Scott Morrison has vowed to crack down on GetUp, accusing the activist group of bullying, misogyny and undisclosed links to the Labor party.

Morrison hinted at another inquiry into the independence of the organisation, which he said was “no longer a wolf in sheep’s clothing”.

“GetUp is a wolf in wolf’s clothing and I think Australians are sick of that,” he told reporters at the South Australian Liberal state council on Saturday.

Liberal MP Nicolle Flint said the government should consider a move to register GetUp as a political party to ensure accountability and transparency.

Flint has accused the group of waging a campaign to personally “destroy” her in the lead-up to the election, by shouting at her, defacing her posters and egging her office.

“They are a front for Labor and the Greens,” she said.

GetUp’s national director, Paul Oosting, hit back at Morrison’s comments as undemocratic and baseless.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A protester is arrested by police after he tried to gain access to the South Australian Liberal state conference in Adelaide. Photograph: Kelly Barnes/AAP

“The prime minister is levelling extraordinary attacks on every day people who participated in politics this election – with no evidence,” he said.

Oosting said a request that the Australian Electoral Commission investigate GetUp’s independence would be a “political stitch-up” after the commission ruled in the group’s favour in February.

“This would be the fourth attempt by the hard right to shut down independent grassroots campaigning,” he said.

Morrison told delegates and observers at Saturday’s meeting that GetUp worked on the principle of “plausible deniability”.

“They say they aren’t Labor when we all know they are,” he said. “They deny having anything to do with the vile, personal attacks on our candidates that only occur in seats where Getup are running campaigns.”

He said the organisation should be ashamed of what happened in Flint’s seat of Boothby, as it was “misogyny” and “bullying”.

Kathryn Bermingham (@KatBermingham) A protestor carrying an Aboriginal flag has clashed with police outside the conference. An egg was thrown during the scuffle. @AAPNewswire pic.twitter.com/82QEXY37sY

Labor spokesman Mark Butler said the idea that GetUp would be subject to the same scrutiny as political parties was unnecessary.

“They’re clearly not a political party, they’re not running candidates,” he said. “I think there are strong programs and strong arrangements in place to make sure that any third party that wants to participate in Australia’s democracy ... is subject to appropriate regulation and transparency.

“This looks like an obsession by the hard right within the Coalition party room.”

Outside the council on Saturday morning a protester carrying an Aboriginal flag clashed with police, and union and climate change activists chanted as delegates arrived at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

The peaceful demonstration turned violent when police stopped a man carrying an Aboriginal flag from entering the meeting. An egg was dropped during the scuffle before the man was apprehended by several officers.

Parliament’s electoral matters committee has launched an inquiry into the 2019 election, including the role of groups such as GetUp, with a report due in mid-2020.

Liberal MPs are expected to make submissions to the inquiry arguing GetUp is a party political “associated entity” and should be subjected to tougher standards of disclosure relating to its funding and campaign material.

Morrison’s attack on GetUp came after an extremely volatile week on global financial markets as fears of a US recession swirled and the US-China trade war continued to bite, which at one stage saw the Australian share market shed $60bn in one day.

Butler said Australians were worried about economic growth tanking, wage growth being flatter than it has have ever been, productivity going backwards and jobs being under threat.

“They will be bewildered by the fact that this government doesn’t appear to have an agenda except these rightwing indulgences like attacking GetUp or building a new fleet of nuclear power stations,” Butler told reporters in Adelaide.